Support African tobacco farmers

Saturday, April 24, 2010 (The Mirror Pg 34)

By Rebecca Kwei
The Minister of Health, Dr Benjamin Kunbuor, has called for support for tobacco farmers in African countries to enable them to venture into other alternative livelihoods.
In a speech on his behalf, the Health Minister said emerging studies showed that there were a range of alternatives to tobacco growing that were more economically viable and less harmful to farmers’ health and the environment.
Dr Kunbuor made the call at the opening session of the second meeting of the working group on economically sustainable alternatives to tobacco growing in relation to Articles 17 and 18 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) in Accra.
The WHO FCTC on tobacco control was developed in response to the globalisation of the tobacco epidemic.
It is the first treaty negotiated under the auspices of the WHO that reaffirms the right of all people to the highest standard of health.
About 30 participants from 18 WHO-member countries are attending the three-day meeting to provide practical guidelines on how to achieve the goals of Articles 17 and 18 which deal with economically sustainable alternatives to tobacco growing and protection of the environment.
Dr Kunbuor noted that many tobacco farmers would like to switch to alternatives, but they often faced challenges such as access to credits, markets, technical assistance, inputs and skills.
He, therefore, expressed the hope that the deliberations at the meeting “will work towards diminishing these barriers, and if protected from interference by the tobacco industry, will assist farmers and other tobacco workers in securing long-term sustainable livelihoods”.
He said the world was waiting for proposals of the working group, since its efforts would impact on the lives of some of the poorest people not only in Africa but around the world.
He said the tobacco industry had for a long time used farmers to slow down ratification and implementation of the WHO FCTC even though the farmers did not really benefit from their hard work and the big profits of the tobacco industry.
The Deputy Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Amofah, who chaired the meeting, said the issue of tobacco growing and its products were complex and challenging and there was the need to design effective strategies to overcome them.
He appealed to the participants to devise ways of monitoring the implementation of key decisions in order to be able to measure progress.
The Head of the Convention Secretariat, WHO Framework on Tobacco Control, Dr Haik Nilogosian, said this was the first time a working group meeting was being held in Africa and pledged the secretariat’s support for the success of the meeting.