Uganda: Health Ministry Embarks On Campaign Against Tobacco Farming

Source from:  The New Vision  07/19/2013

The Ministry of health has engaged the civil society and local leaders to drive the campaign against tobacco farming.

A principal medical officer in charge of mental health, control of substance abuse and management of neurological disorders, Dr. Sheila Ndyanabangi said Wednesday health workers and leaders of civil society organizations are currently traversing the tobacco growing districts urging farmers to stop growing the crop.

"We have embarked on a new campaign to advice farmers to stop planting tobacco. We have already been to West Nile where the crop is grown, we are showing the farmer alternative crops," Ndanabangi said during the ongoing International Conference for Social Development at Speke Resort Munyonyo hotel in Kampala.

She observed that although the trade agreements Uganda signed with the World Trade Organization don't allow the country to ban tobacco growing, it's allowed to persuade the farmers to stop growing the crop.

Ndanabangi said that tobacco growing is responsible for the high levels of deforestation and food shortage in families of farmers engaged in growing the crop. "There are some families that have concentrated in growing tobacco and they are always hit by famine. We are telling them that they can be well off if they grow other crops instead of tobacco," she added.

The health ministry, she said would carry on the sensitization efforts against tobacco growing until the farmers give up growing of the highly "deadly" crop, adding " We are also working with local leaders and farmers have welcomed the idea but some may not stop growing tobacco immediately because they have debts with tobacco companies,"

Ndyanabangi said the ministry was in the process of drafting a national alcohol policy to regulate its production and consumption. She blamed the increasing psychiatric cases in mental health facilities to drug abuse. Ndyanabangi also partly blamed poverty among the youth to drug abuse.

The conference that is attended by 200 doctors, scholars, educators, policy makers, economists, demographers, researchers and social scientists from 40 countries is hosted by Makerere University and Simmons College in the United States. The two institutions won the bid to host the conference two years ago.

Prof. Hugo Kamya from Simmons College said the overall aim of the conference is to examine the emerging ideas in social development, uncovering challenges and opportunities around the global and local priorities, human rights, health and millennium development goals. Enditem