By HELEN ZULU –
THE anti-tobacco lobby will affect tobacco farmers’ income, the Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU) has said.
This is because there is so far no alternative crop that has been suggested to replace tobacco in terms of income and benefits realised from growing the crop.
The International Tobacco Control (ITC) policy evaluation project has disseminated the findings of its latest survey on tobacco use in Zambia as part of its on-going campaign to end demand for tobacco and its products.
This is according to information on the ZNFU website.
The ITC Zambia project is an evaluation of the country’s efforts to implement tobacco control policies under the World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).
“It is feared that the anti-tobacco lobby may leave hundreds of thousands of tobacco farmers impoverished, and threaten the livelihoods of their families.
“In addition, there’s so far no alternative crop that has been suggested to replace tobacco in terms of income and benefits realised from growing tobacco,” ZNFU said.
It says the farmers were putting resistance against the lobbyists’ salvo on fear that if left unchanged, the FCTC guidelines would negatively affect the socio-economic development of several African states that rely on tobacco growing.
The lobby group renewed its salvo at the industry demanding that the government increases the price and taxation on tobacco products to curb smoking.
Almost 19 million people in the trade bloc are dependent on tobacco growing and manufacturing, while tax revenues from tobacco in the region amount to a staggering US$3.8 billion.
In Zambia, tobacco is an important export cash crop generating income for many rural households whose livelihoods depend on farming.
The Tobacco Board of Zambia says the industry employs over 450, 000 throughout the supply chain, including 23,000 tobacco growing families.