摘要：Tobacco farming in Tanzania relies heavily on shifting cultivation and abundant supply of fuel wood to cure the crop. Vast deforestation of miombo woodlands has also been an attribute in tobacco growing areas. This study report on an assessment survey carried out to characterize these three attributes of tobacco farming in Urambo district, Tanzania. Focus group discussions and questionnaires were used to gather information from a selection of households in four tobacco growing villages. Seventy five percent of the farming households were regular tobacco growers. On average, a farmer cultivated 1.3 ha of tobacco each growing season. Over 61,000 ha of land are cleared annually for tobacco growing in the district. A conservative average crop harvest stood at 1,000 kg (cured) per ha which consume 23 m3 of wood for curing. Shifting cultivation, with fallow periods reduced to only 4 years, is no longer sustainable in Urambo district. The high demands of wood for the tobacco industry can as well no longer be sustained under the implicated pace of woodland deforestation. For small scale tobacco farming households, these are inevitable consequences of use for livelihood and survival.
