Alliance One awards tobacco farmer’s club
One of the tobacco buying company, Alliance One, awarded Chimimbe Club from Traditional Authority Mlonyeni in Mchinji a walking tractor and plough worth K1.2 million for being one of the six successful farmers clubs.
The other clubs which are expected to receive the same award are from Lilongwe, Dowa, Rumphi and two others from Kasungu.
Alliance One Country Agronomists Ronald Ngwira said this is one way for the company to show gratitude to the farmers whose efforts are providing them with quality tobacco leaf.
“We are getting what we want at the market, the unrelated chemical free tobacco with good farming practices which do not promote child labour and always environmental friendly.
“We believe in giving back to farmers and the communities where the quality tobacco is grown,” he said.
He said to come up with the winning club; they look at tobacco quality, yields and extinction of non-tobacco related materials.
Alliance One has a total of 9500 contracted barley tobacco farmers and 800 flue cured tobacco farmers.
The company has spent over K59 million in social responsibility programme this year alone and it plans to increase the budget to K80 million next year.
It health sector, the company has drilled boreholes among other works, in education, it has reconstructed three schools and build eight new one and in environment they have established community woodlots, runs a one child one tree campaign where 2 373 000 wood trees and 32 000 food trees have been planted.
They have also provided farmers with 3 000 environmental friendly cooking stoves.
