[Intl-tobacco] Africans Worried By New WHO Tobacco Initiative

[Robert Weissman]

Africans Worried By New WHO Tobacco Initiative [Source: Africa News Service]
10/2/00

Nairobi - Tobacco kills millions of people annually and about 70 percent
of such victims are in developing countries. There are increasing fears
that tobacco could kill 10 million people annually by 2030. In Africa
where provision of health services is poor, this is a big burden to
governments. But, WHO's proposals may have far reaching implications as
they involve the survival of millions of people whose livelihood is
derived from tobacco farming. African countries are in a dilemma whether
to approve the World Health Organisation's WHO proposal calling for a ban
on tobacco farming. Naturally, many tobacco growing countries in Africa
are up in arms against this "damning" initiative.

The governments of Malawi, Zimbabwe and Kenya are fiercely opposed to the
proposals arguing that the crop earns their countries millions in taxes
and has helped to improve the living standards of their people.

The proposals which WHO wants countries to ratify will have far reaching
implications as it relates to the survival of millions of people whose
livelihood is derived from tobacco farming.

The WHO holds the view that cigarette smoking is as harmful a practise as
pushing heroine, cocaine or cannabis sativa.

It says that tobacco kills 4 million people annually, 70 percent of whom
in developing countries and will be killing 10 million annually by 2030.
In Africa where provision of health services is poor, this is a big burden
to governments.

Yet the crop is also a boom to some. In Malawi, tobacco has assumed a cult
status that talks of banning it is as irresistible as it is impossible.
Nearly 70 percent of Malawi's population of 10 million is dependent on
tobacco.

Statistics from the country's Ministry of Agriculture rank tobacco as the
largest contributor to the country's Gross Domestic Product GDP. Last
year, it generated US $200 million from the crop though experts predict
that a potential exists to make it earn the country US $600 million.

Malawi is one of the world's poorest countries and 70 percent of its
revenue, which is mainly from tobacco, goes into paying its foreign debt
of US $112 million.

WHO's call for them to diversify to other crops from tobacco does not go
down well with local farmers who have come to regard tobacco as their only
source of living.

"We will require some time, probably 20 years, to change from tobacco
farming and this is not going to be easy. How do you suddenly tell farmers
to stop tobacco farming without giving them high paying alternatives as is
happening with tobacco growing now?" asked an official from the Ministry
of Agriculture.

Many Malawians who consider tobacco as the "green gold" share his
predicament.  One only needs to visit the country during the harvest
season to see how the crop has changed their lives. It is the time when
most shopkeepers who are mainly of Asian origin do roaring business
selling bicycles, shoes and clothes.

Apart from health factors, anti-tobacco lobbyists also cite its ability to
render farms infertile as a major reason why banning tobacco is necessary.
They also argue that the crop cannot alleviate hunger, which is a bane to
many African governments.

Tobacco farming is also being bandied as a major cause of deforestation in
many countries. Experts say that during the drying season, each farmer
cuts down 10 trees a day while it takes 15 years for planted trees to
mature.

But in spite of their efforts at growing tobacco, many Malawians are non-
smokers and are only encouraged by its financial benefits. "Without
tobacco, I will not be able to pay school fees and feed my family," says
Joseph Phiri who has been growing tobacco during the past 30 years.

Children's rights activists also support WHO's initiative arguing that
many tobacco farms have been employing children as workers.

Children constitute the core of labour force in tobacco plantations, often
working without protective clothing and barefoot exposing them to the
highly poisonous anti-pesticide chemical Orthene.

In Kenya, where tobacco supports nearly 600,000 people, a furious debate
is raging in the industry whether cigarette manufacturers are genuinely
concerned with the welfare of tobacco farmers.

Unlike their counterparts from other countries, the farmers are arguing
that tobacco farming, being a labour intensive undertaking needs adequate
compensation.

Manufacturers on the other hand blame the government for imposing too much
taxation on cigarettes - 160 percent- and they have to devise other means
to ensure that they survive in the trade.

This also explains why the Kenya government is cagey about any legislation
that will disorganise the industry where it earns some US $93 million
annually.

The best quality tobacco fetches no more than US $1.0 a kilogramme -
already cured, sorted out and baled ready for the factory.

However, the same kilogramme makes 1,000 cigarette sticks. After all the
costs have been worked out a kilogramme of tobacco in Kenya fetches US
$32.4.

Other issues like tax, employment and foreign exchange aside, industry
players are asking what justification is there for a farmer to earn US
$6.4 a kilogramme from the crop.

The situation is markedly different from Zimbabwe where raw tobacco, that
is the one that is still dripping with unrefined nicotine, fetches US
$2.33.  Whoever cures, grades and bales the tobacco makes a profit of at
least one dollar.

A factory ready kilogramme of tobacco is worth US $4. In Malawi a tobacco
farmer earns US $1.6 a kilogramme.

Yet in Zimbabwe and Malawi, the working environment for the farmers is far
much better than that obtaining in Kenya where they are not provided with
gloves, gas masks or overcoats.

Despite the WHO's campaign British American Tobacco Company BAT which has
a near monopoly in Africa still believes that the potential exists to
expand its market reach. Already, the company is exploring venturing into
new markets like Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan and Djibouti.

But it will have to contend with new strict guidelines on smoking that
some countries are putting in place. In Egypt, the country's Ministry of
Health recently decreed that only non-smokers were eligible for promotion
at work.

The country has its 40 percent male and 8 percent women smokers. The
number of smokers has been increasing and a 1995 WHO report says the
number of smokers increased by 274 percent between 1963 and 1990.

(Copyright 2000 African Church Information Service.)

Distributed via Africa News Online by Africa News Service.