Brazil, China and India are the leading countries in tobacco production. The WHO warns governments to “stop subsidizing this crop” and thus be able to bet on “growing food.”
Brazil has the third largest tobacco-growing area in the world and Mozambique the eighth, according to a report by the World Health Organization (WHO) released this Friday.
Using the pretext of World No Tobacco Day, which is celebrated on May 31, the report notes that, with 357,230 hectares, Brazil leads the Americas region and is, together with China and India, responsible for more than 55% of world tobacco production, continuing to maintain its production without increasing the cultivated area.
Mozambique, with a cultivated area of 91,469 hectares, is the third in the African regionafter Zimbabwe (112,770 hectares) and Malawi (100,962).
In the report, titled “World No Tobacco Day: Grow Food, Not Tobacco,” the WHO urges governments to “stop subsidizing tobacco growing and support more sustainable crops that could feed millions of people.”
“Tobacco is responsible for eight million deaths a year, yet governments around the world spend millions to support tobacco farms,” says WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in the report.
The WHO recalls that more than 300 million people worldwide face acute food insecurity.
“Meanwhile, more than three million hectares of land in more than 120 countries are being used to grow tobacco, even in countries where people are starving,” counters the United Nations agency.
“By choosing to grow food instead of tobacco, we are prioritizing health, preserving ecosystems and reinforcing food security for all,” he stresses.
The WHO points out that tobacco cultivation is a “global problem”, with a focus on Asia and South America, “but the latest data shows that tobacco companies are expanding into Africa.”
“Since 2005, there has been an increase of almost 20% in the land under tobacco cultivation in Africa,” he warns.
Brazil and Mozambique are the only Portuguese-speaking countries referred to in the report, which identifies the 50 countries with the largest cultivation area of this plant, once classified as medicinal and currently the object of criticism and political measures against its widespread use.
Source: Observadora
