Tobacco production and marketing requires specific skills and knowledge of technical aspects involved in handling the crop from the field, through the curing process in the barn, to the auction floors. Tobacco production is technically more demanding than, for example, maize production, but it is financially more lucrative. Small-holder burley tobacco producers in some remote areas of Zimbabwe sometimes adopt unconventional methods of curing tobacco, but they market it together with their commercial colleagues, who are expected to have higher standards in the selected marketing system. Both types of farmers often complain of the poor prices they receive. Burley producers may share the same concerns about marketing, but they have differing problems when it comes to the production process. Small-holder farmers have problems relating to size of land-holdings and support systems available to them. Their problems may be linked both to the fact that cash crop production is not their priority activity and their general need to secure food reserves
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