Maintaining Tobacco Growing in Fiji

Source from:  Tobacco Reporter 10/18/2010

Fiji's Agriculture Department says it is in favour of maintaining the country's current level of tobacco growing while experimenting with alternative crops, according to a Radio New Zealand story. Tobacco industry stakeholders discussed alternatives to tobacco growing during a World Health Organization consultative meeting in Sigatoka last week. The Permanent Secretary, Colonel Mason Smith, was quoted by the Fijivillage website as saying that the tobacco industry was to be expanded, but his deputy, Suliasi Tawake, said he was unaware of any such policy. "We'll maintain the tobacco industry in Fiji for the farmers because it is a source of their livelihood, but at the same time we are promoting alternative activities, alternative crops, which currently the farmers are doing to some extent," said Tawake. "We are probably trying maybe to expand this area." Enditem