Most African farmers grow tobacco because they are poor and lack alternative ways to earn a living, but with encouragement, many Tanzanian farmers are giving the killer crop the cold-shoulder.
This is according to Lutgard Kagaruki, from the Tanzania Tobacco Control Forum, who addressed a panel at the World Health Organisation's tobacco control conference in Durban this week.
Tanzania is the second biggest grower of tobacco in Africa after Malawi, but many tobacco farmers were "enslaved in permanent debt to the tobacco companies" and wanted to get out, said Kagaruki.
"The tobacco companies give subsidies and loans for them to buy fertiliser, chemicals (pesticides) and seed.
Continues Below ↓
"But then they under-grade the crops and set low prices. The farmers can't repay the loans and find themselves enslaved in permanent debt bondage," said Kagaruki.
The 80 000 tobacco farmers in Tanzania earned an estimated US$1 (R10) a day, she added.
In addition, three-quarters of the farmers smoked and suffered from the respiratory sicknesses and cancer associated with smoking.
The TTCF started to organise among tobacco farmers in the Namtambo district, encouraging them rather to grow food by pointing out that at least they could eat their crops when they faced hard times.
"In October 2006 there were 22 300 tobacco farmers in the district, but a year later there were only 6 333," said Kagaruki.
"They have started growing simsim (sesame seeds) and sunflowers and groundnuts, and they are very happy. They call me on my cellphone and tell me how well they are doing," she added.
While tobacco is Tanzania's second biggest foreign exchange earner, bringing about $55,5-million into the country in 2003/4, one of the country's cancer institutes, the Ocean Road Cancer Institute, reported spending $30-million treating smoking-related cancers during the same period.
Continues...
|
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Digg
Delicious
Newsvine
Facebook
muti
Twitter
