UNITED NATIONS, May 26 (APP): With hunger spreading worldwide and tobacco responsible for eight million deaths each year, countries should stop subsidizing tobacco crops and help farmers grow food, the World Health Organization (WHO), a Geneva-based UN agency, said Friday.<\/p>\n
Ahead of World No Tobacco Day on Wednesday May 31, WHO deplored that 3.2 million hectares of fertile land across 124 countries are being used to grow deadly tobacco \u2013 even in places where people are starving.<\/p>\n
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that governments across the world \u201cspend millions supporting tobacco farms\u201d, and that choosing to grow food instead of tobacco would allow the world to \u201cprioritize health, preserve ecosystems, and strengthen food security for all\u201d.<\/p>\n
The agency\u2019s new report, \u201cGrow food, not tobacco\u201d, recalls that a record 349 million people are facing acute food insecurity, many of them in some 30 countries on the African continent, where tobacco cultivation has increased by
\n15 per cent in the last decade.<\/p>\n
According to WHO, nine of the 10 largest tobacco cultivators are low and middle-income countries. Tobacco farming compounds these countries\u2019 food security challenges by taking up arable land. The environment and the communities which rely on it also suffer, as the crop\u2019s expansion drives deforestation, contamination of water sources and soil degradation.<\/p>\n
The report also exposes the tobacco industry for trapping farmers in a vicious cycle of dependence and exaggerating
\nthe economic benefits of tobacco as a cash crop.<\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters in Geneva on Friday, Dr. R\u00fcdiger Krech, WHO\u2019s Director for Health Promotion, warned that tobacco\u2019s economic importance is a \u201cmyth that we urgently need to dispel\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said that the crop contributes less than 1 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in most tobacco-growing
\ncountries, and that the profits go to the world\u2019s major cigarette-makers, while farmers struggle under the burden
\nof debt contracted with the tobacco companies.<\/p>\n
Dr. Krech also explained that tobacco farmers find themselves exposed to nicotine poisoning and dangerous pesticides. The broader impact on communities and whole societies is devastating, as some 1.3 million child labourers are estimated to be working on tobacco farms instead of going to school, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe message to smokers is, think twice\u201d, Dr. Krech said, as consuming tobacco came down to supporting an iniquitous situation in which farmers and their families were suffering.<\/p>\n
WHO, along with the UN\u2019s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) have joined forces around the Tobacco Free Farms initiative, to help thousands of farmers in countries like Kenya and Zambia to grow sustainable food crops instead of tobacco.<\/p>\n
The programme provides farmers with microcredit lending to pay off their debts with tobacco companies, as well as knowledge and training to grow alternative crops, and a market for their harvest, thanks to WFP\u2019s local procurement initiatives.<\/p>\n
Dr. Krech said that the programme was a \u201cproof of concept\u201d of the power of the UN system to enable farmers to break free from harmful tobacco cultivation. He outlined ambitious plans to expand the programme, as countries in Asia and South America were already requesting support.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can help every farmer in the world to get out of tobacco farming if they wish,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UNITED NATIONS, May 26 (APP): With hunger spreading worldwide and tobacco responsible for eight million deaths each year, countries should stop subsidizing tobacco crops and help farmers grow food, the World Health Organization (WHO), a Geneva-based UN agency, said Friday. Ahead of World No Tobacco […]<\/p>\n
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