ITGA Regional Meeting: Restating the Important Role of Tobacco in Africa
International Tobacco Growers’ Association (ITGA)
Members of the International Tobacco Growers’ Association (ITGA) in Africa gathered in Harare, Zimbabwe this past June for the ITGA Regional Meeting 2018. Growers debated the challenges the sector is facing, especially in Africa.
The participants from the main tobacco growing countries in Africa agreed on the need for a holistic approach towards tobacco growing in order to ensure the sustainability of the crop in the long term. A point was made on this regard requesting the involvement of governments and stakeholders to develop joint programs that may tackle these issues efficiently.
ITGA Regional Meeting: Restating the Important Role of Tobacco in Africa
The Minister of Land, Agriculture, and Rural Resettlement, represented by the permanent secretary, R.J Chitsiko, opened the ceremony giving emphasis to the important contribution of tobacco to the Zimbabwean economy. “This current season, Zimbabwe’s expected production of tobacco stands at 220 million kilograms, with earnings of US$650 million in growers’ earnings. This will be the highest volume and value attained since the land reform. Furthermore, the crop accounted for 11% of the GDP in 2017, constituting 61% of all agriculture exports and 21% of total exports,” he said. Talking about the social impact of tobacco in Zimbabwe, Chitsiko added that the regional tobacco growing sector employs more than 3.9 million people. He also appealed to farmers to employ sustainable tobacco programs so as to reduce the negative environmental impact of tobacco growing, through good agriculture practices like using sustainable curing fuel and not employing child labor, finishing his speech by reiterating the government’s commitment to support the sector.The meeting was the occasion for the launch of a very important report commissioned by ITGA and undertaken by an independent research company, TUTWA.
According to the findings of this study, which covered five tobacco-growing countries in southern Africa, the average of people employed directly and indirectly in the tobacco value chain counts for 50% of the total agriculture labor force in those countries. Another interesting point regarding employment, according to the study, is that every time a job is created in the tobacco sector, almost two jobs are created in the national economy. The economic side of the study reflects how tobacco is one of the biggest African exports, making tobacco a very important trading factor for Africa as a whole. Other findings point to the high- skilled agriculture practices undertaken by tobacco growers, who generally produce food crops in rotation with tobacco. These food crops are used for domestic consumption, but in many cases the surplus is commercialized, contributing to import reductions. The study also highlights the need to implement more sustainable production practices but acknowledges the fact that in order to achieve this, growers need to be paid a fair price allowing them to cover their costs with a reasonable profit margin.
Steve Swanenpol, the current president of the Zimbabwe Tobacco Association (ZTA), talking about the shared agenda between FCTC and UN agencies against tobacco, stated, “ At a phase, like the one we are going through, where the market is showing signs of ambiguity, where our insecurity increases by the lack of reliable information or simply by the misinformation we are subject to and, where legislation keeps ignoring real facts that only we, growers, acknowledge by being in the field, we surely have to stand together to make a strong statement. This statement has to put granularity on the information spread about our sector and put us on the right places talking to the right people to stop, once and for all, this absurd trend launched by the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control many years ago, to exclude us from everything that has to do with us, tobacco, its cultivation, and the survival of the people living on it.”
“If the FCTC secretariat on its summary of the global meeting celebrated last year in Tanzania regarding implementation of article 17&18 (social and environmental impact of tobacco production), complained about the lack of inclusion of the FCTC secretariat on tobacco control committees which sovereignty resides in countries, we too, complain, this time to our governments, for the lack of participation of tobacco growers’ associations in matters as important as the ones included in articles 17&18.”
FCTC recently published the result of a survey developed in the two main tobacco-growing regions in Zimbabwe. On this regard ITGA c.e.o., Antonio Abrunhosa, said, “After 10 years and much insistence from our side trying to collaborate by providing FCTC and NGOs working on the guidelines for articles 17&18, with our experience and knowledge, a proper report has come out, commissioned by FCTC and corroborating everything we have been saying during all these years. I do not know if it is appropriate to congratulate them for wasting so much time and money before concluding what has been out there to see for everyone who did not have FCTC’s ideological bias.
“I will certainly congratulate the people in charge of carrying this pilot project for the impartial way they have treated the information gathered in two big tobacco-growing regions in Zimbabwe. First, for acknowledging the fact that at this point there is no viable alternative to tobacco but diversification is possible and desirable; second, for recognizing the socio-economic impact of tobacco and the high rates of employment involved in the tobacco value chain; and third for clarifying tobacco growers good agriculture practices, which include crop rotation and food security measures and, last but not least, for explaining why tobacco growers grow tobacco instead of other crops.
“The report also covered, wisely, the challenges affecting our sector like deforestation, which in the case of Zimbabwe is certainly a high point of concern. If this problem is not approached in a holistic way, we could be facing very soon its devastating effects and I am sure, we are here, to discuss these issues and again to offer our help in whatever initiative is found to tackle this problem. And, obviously, those who benefit most in this industry, manufacturing and trading companies must find ways to make sure that the growers’ income allows them to pay for a legal hired labor and to use sustainable curing sources.”
The TUTWA Study is available on www.tobaccoleaf.org.