opposition to them growing cotton or tobacco in competition with the estates. The area of flue-cured tobacco farmed by European planters in the Shire Highlands rose from between 1911 and 1920, yielding 2,500 tonnes of tobacco. Before 1920, only about 5% of the crop sold was dark-fired tobacco produced by African farmers, but this rose to 14% by 1924. The First World War boosted the production of tobacco, but post-war competition from United States Virginia adversely affected Nyasaland growers. Much of the tobacco produced by the European estates was a low-grade, and the decline in flue-cured tobacco intensified throughout the 1920s. Europeans produced 86% of Malawi's tobacco in 1924, 57% in 1927, 28% in 1933, but only 16% in 1936. Despite this decline, tobacco still accounted for 65-80% of exports in the years from 1921 to 1932. Formation of a Native Tobacco Board in 1926 stimulated production of fire-cured tobacco. By 1935, 70% of the national tobacco crop was grown in the Central Province where the Board had around 30,000 registered growers. At first, these farmed Crown land (also called Native Trust Land), but later estates contracted sharecropping “Visiting Tenants”. The number of growers expanded after the Second World War, so by 1950 there were over 104,500 growers planting and growing 10,000 tons of tobacco; only 15,000 were in the Southern Province. About three-quarters were smallholders, the rest estate tenants. Numbers declined later, but there were still 70,000 in 1965, producing 12,000 tons. Egyptian cotton was first grown commercially by African smallholders in the upper Shire valley in 1903 and spread to the lower Shire valley and the shores of Lake Nyasa. By 1905 American Upland cotton was grown on estates in the Shire Highlands. African-grown cotton was bought by The British Central Africa Company Ltd and the African Lakes Corporation until 1912 when government cotton markets were established where a fairer price for cotton was given. After reckless planting on unsuitable land, consolidation of the planted area to and improving quality increased cotton exports to a peak of 44% of total exports in 1917 when the First World Was stimulated demand. A shortage of manpower caused a post-war drop in production, with no recovery until 1924, but then reaching 2,700 tons in 1932 and a record of 4,000 tons exported in 1935. This was mainly African production in the lower Shire valley, as output from European estates became insignificant.