ADVOCATES NEED TO END TOBACCO FARMING TO BOOST SOIL FERTILITY
By Vincess Okushi.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that about 57.9% of people in Africa suffer from moderate to severe food insecurity due to tobacco farming in the region.
WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, stated this on the Occasion of World No Tobacco Day, on Wednesday 31 May 2023.
She said Tobacco growth and production have continued to jeopardize the region’s attainment of SDG 2 which aims to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture across member states.
Speaking on the theme “Grow Food, Not Tobacco.” The Director stressed that tobacco production is destroying the ecosystems, depletes soils of fertility, contaminates water bodies, and pollutes the environment, adding that it is imperative for the citizens toll the line of food farming as any profits gained from tobacco is usually cash cropped, which damages a sustainable food production in low- and middle-income countries.
Moeti noted that the current challenges faced in food and nutrition security were influenced by the increasing tobacco farming accounting for nearly 828 million people facing hunger globally, while 278 million out of these numbers (20%) are in Africa and called for concerted efforts to ensure food for all.
“Available data shows that while the area under tobacco cultivation decreased by 15.7% globally, in Africa it increased by 3.4% from 2012 to 2018. “During this period, tobacco leaf production globally reduced by 13.9%; however, it increased by 10.6% in Africa. In recent years, tobacco cultivation has shifted to Africa because of a regulatory environment that is more favorable to the tobacco industry, as well as increasing demand for tobacco.
“The tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public health challenges the world has ever faced, killing more than eight million people around the world every year. While the number of people using tobacco products is decreasing in other parts of the world, it is rising in the Africa Region. For example, the number of tobacco users in the WHO African Region increased from an estimated 64 million adult users in 2000 to 73 million in 2018. This is partly due to the increased production of tobacco products as well as aggressive marketing by the tobacco industry.
“The intensification of the major drivers behind recent food insecurity and malnutrition trends, such as conflict, climate extremes, and economic shocks, further compounds this situation.”
The Regional Director further appealed to tobacco-growing countries in the Africa Region to step up the implementation of Articles 17 and 18 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC)
According to her, enacting such legislation will develop and implement suitable policies and strategies, to enable tobacco farmers to shift to growing food crops that would provide them and their families with a better life while enhancing the protection of the environment and the health of people to meet up with citizens aspiration.
“This year’s theme is “Grow Food, Not Tobacco”. This theme aims to raise awareness about alternative crop production and marketing opportunities for tobacco farmers and encourage them to grow sustainable, nutritious crops. The theme also seeks to expose the tobacco industry’s efforts to interfere with attempts to substitute tobacco growing with sustainable crops, thereby worsening the global food crisis. It calls on all of us to explore how food and agricultural policies make adequate nutritious food and healthy diets available while reducing tobacco production.
“Governments should support tobacco farmers to switch to alternative crops by ending tobacco growing subsidies and using the savings for crop substitution programs to improve food security and nutrition. Shifting from tobacco to nutritious food crops has the potential to feed millions of families and improve the livelihoods of farming communities in Africa.
“Such initiatives will also combat desertification and environmental degradation, raise awareness in tobacco farming communities about the benefits of moving away from tobacco and growing sustainable crops, and expose the tobacco industry’s efforts to obstruct sustainable livelihoods work in the Africa Region.”
World Tobacco Day is celebrated every 31 May as it provides an opportunity to highlight the dangers associated with tobacco use and exposure to tobacco smoke, aimed at renewing advocacy for effective policies to halt the tobacco epidemic and its impact on individuals, societies, and nations.
