Kenya: Kicking the Habit - Migori Declares End to Tobacco Farming

Source from:  The Star  05/15/2014

Two decades ago, the chants of tobacco buyers as they weighed cured leaves was music to Mogaya Marwa's ears.

He started tobacco farming in 1987 hoping to reap from the industry's multi-billion profits and give his four children a bright future.

However, 27 years later, Marwa's life has not changed and the buyers' chants have become increasingly irritating.

The 51-year-old farmer from Kuria West District still toils daily in his tobacco farm struggling with both poverty and bad health.

He is now among thousands of farmers in Migori County eagerly waiting for alternative crops the county government has promised to provide.

Migori produces 71 per cent of Kenya's tobacco production, but it's still one of the poorest counties in Kenya with almost half of the people living below the poverty line.

The county government says tobacco is not helping farmers and has promised wean them from it. The move is expected to be ferociously resisted by tobacco firms.

Migori produces 16,000 tonnes of tobacco every year compared to 22,000 tonnes nationally.

County agriculture executive Moses Chamwada says that must end. He says farmers have cut down trees for leaf curing, leading to deforestation.

This has caused unpredicted weather conditions in the county. Chamwada says this affects production of food crops such as maize, beans and finger millet, which are staple for the locals.

"Chemicals used in tobacco production have also affected the soil. They have degraded fertility on land as the crop consumes a lot of nitrogen," he said.

Chamwada confirmed that more than 35, 000 hectares of land in the county is under tobacco.

Migori is now the second most food insecure county in Nyanza in spite of its good climate, Chamwada laments.

On the other hand, farmers complain they earn peanuts from their sales and tobacco companies are unwilling to pay more.

According to surveys by the county government, more than 50,000 farmers in Migori and Kuria districts have been contracted by different tobacco companies to farm the crop.

Local health officials say many farmers have contracted health problems including the Green Tobacco Sickness, contracted through the extensive handling of wet tobacco leaf.

Its symptoms include extreme muscle weakness, headaches, nausea, vomiting, asthma, boils, breathing difficulties, diarrhoea, fever, and changes in blood pressure and heart rate.

"This is a slow death. The companies don't care about our health. All they seem to be focused on is how many tonnes of tobacco we will produce for them. I have seen a number of farmers die in tobacco related cases in the many years that I have farmed the crop," Marwa said at his farm in Nyangoge village.

He said many farmers have also died after long exposure to pesticides and chemicals during the crop's production process.

Pamela Atieno, a widow and mother of two, has been treating chest complications that doctors have failed to manage.

Her husband, a former tobacco farmer in Migori, introduced her to the crop immediately after he married her. He died from chronic tuberculosis.

"I had no choice but to assist my husband on his farm. After he died, I had to continue farming to support our children. I work in pain and every time I visit a hospital, doctors say they would not see anything, I strongly believe this is as a result of the tobacco," Atieno said.

Tobacco was introduced in the region in 1984 by the famous British American Tobacco which was followed by a number of other companies which include Mastermind Tobacco Limited and Alliance One.

For many decades, it has been perceived as the only cash crop.

Chamwada says the county government is now keen on funding alternative cash crops in the region.

These include Soya beans, Moby dick flowers and highland rice among others.

He said the county government has further purchased maize and rice seeds for more than 5,000 farmers in the county and provided subsidised fertilizer as a roll-out programme.

"The county government has also issued cassava cuttings, potato vines and sorghum which we are promoting as alternative food crops to tobacco. We are also introducing bills to control tobacco farming and with time, we will see tobacco phased out," said Chamwada.

The county government is also helping farmers restore their lands, which have been contaminated by chemicals from the tobacco plants.

Tobacco production takes more than six months. The seedlings take three months to grow in the nursery before being transplanted.

The crops then take another three months to mature before the farmer starts harvesting. The harvested leaves are then put in a barn for curing.

This is followed by the grading process. The final product is pressed into bales and delivered to buyers, where it is weighed and priced. The farmers rest for one month and the next season begins.

Farmers say key expenses include fertiliser, construction of the curing barns and labour.

However, tobacco companies provide farming implements to farmers on loan.

Most of the duties in tobacco farms are done by children. John Chacha, a 35-years-old farmer from Ngisiru village in Kuria West, says he started working on his parents' tobacco farm when he was 12 years old.

"My parents would wake me up at around 5.30am to help in the farm. I would work up to 6.30am before rushing back to the house to prepare for school. This really affected my performance as I again had to walk for several kilometres to school. Do you expect me to have performed well?"

Chacha dropped out of school in standard seven and became a tobacco farmer.

The region has also seen its forest cover deteriorate because farmers fell trees for drying the tobacco leaves in barns.

Currently, farmers are paid Sh220 per kilogramme for the best grade, which they complain is very difficult to achieve.

Majority get an average of Sh78 per kilogramme for the cured leaves.

The Kenya Tobacco Farmers Association (Ketofa) says Kenya has some of the lowest tobacco prices.

"Earnings from tobacco are still low. We have always tried to negotiate for better prices with the companies but nothing much is forthcoming," said association national chairman Augustine Mwita.

Farmers use their earnings to repay loans for fertiliser and construction of the barns.

They use their belongings such as cattle, motor cycle and household goods as collateral.

Kennedy Matiko recalls how officers from one of the tobacco companies impounded his five heads of cattle one Sunday morning.

"They don't care if a farmer has had a bad harvest. I was a victim of the situation once when they just walked into my compound and drove the animals away. I tried pleading with them but they could not listen," said Matiko.

The Migori county government says this will not this continue and has to regulate the industry.

"Tobacco farming is not safe as it comes with a lot of challenges, mainly health implications. As much as farmers get income, we spend much in treating tobacco related health issues," said Migori health executive Iscar Oluoch.

She said the county government is developing measures to protect the health of Migori residents.

This comes as the Kenyan government continues to enforce Tobacco Control Act, which was enacted in July 2007.

The Act restricts smoking in public places and regulates advertisement of cigarettes and tobacco products.

It also mandates the government to introduce tobacco farmers to other food and cash crops.

The 2012 tobacco Atlas, the world's most comprehensive analysis of tobacco-related activities produced by the American Cancer Society and the World Lung Foundation, says at least three per cent of all deaths of men in Kenya every year are triggered by tobacco use.

Kenyans are said to smoke about 15 billion sticks of cigarette every year, which exposes them to heart diseases and certain forms of cancer.

Health experts say if this trend continues the country will soon have a tobacco epidemic.

"You can imagine tobacco has about 4,000 chemical components and it is only human beings who consume it. Even animals don't consume tobacco. We need to control tobacco use or else it will soon become a disaster," said Mombasa county public health officer Joseph Kimwele.

Kimwele says a big number of hospital admissions result from non-communicable diseases and tobacco is a major contributor.

The Ministry of Health says about 50 to 70 per cent of all hospital admissions and more than 50 per cent of total mortality in the country are caused by non-communicable diseases, such as cancers, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and respiratory diseases.

"Tobacco is a risk factor for the four leading non-communicable diseases which are cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and chronic respiratory diseases," Kimwele said.

The diseases account for more than 63 per cent of global deaths, according to the World Health Organisation.

Kimwele accuses cigarette manufacturers of hiding behind corporate social responsibility to make their products more acceptable.

Policy makers have also been blamed for turning a blind eye on killer tobacco products in the country.

For instance in 2004, tobacco manufacturers spent Sh7 million to take Members of Parliament on a luxurious "workshop" to Mombasa to discuss and build support for amendments to weaken the Tobacco Control Bill. Enditem