Kenya: Planned Greening Law Threatens to Uproot Tobacco Growers

Source from:  Business Daily (Nairobi) 03/02/2010

Use of wood to cure tobacco is causing an environmental crisis in tobacco growing areas of Migori, Kuria, Uriri and Rongo districts even as a new law pushes afforestation programmes to farmers. Under the Forestry Act set to come in force in May, farmers are required to put a tenth of their farms under trees but the requirement may not be enforceable as farm sizes become increasingly smaller due to subdivision. Speaking in Kisumu during the Nyanza provincial land preparation field day, agriculture minister William Ruto said tree nurseries would be established in all divisions to enable farmers support environmental conservation programmes. "The guidelines will boost sustainable farming that is environmental friendly," Mr Ruto said. Tobacco growers use firewood to cure tobacco in the barns, a move that has led to massive deforestation in the region. Although the buying companies that include Alliance One, BAT Kenya and Mastermind Tobacco occasionally supply tree seedlings to the over 15,000 contracted growers to replenish the cut trees, the efforts end up in vain because the seedlings are not tended to maturity. Some local leaders have even called on farmers from Southern Nyanza, who earned Sh1 billion from tobacco last year, to stop growing the crop altogether and migrate to crops that are less destructive to the environment. "Start growing other well paying cash crops that do not interfere with environmental conservation," roads assistant minister Wilfred Machage told farmers, adding that years of tobacco farming had contributed to food insecurity by reducing the productivity of land. Farmers, however, have backed the afforestation efforts saying many areas had been reduced to deserts by human activities. Enditem