Andhra growers seek guidance to the ‘promised land’

Tobacco growers in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh are urging world leaders to address the issue of providing them with alternative livelihoods, according to a story in the latest issue of the BBM Bommidala Group newsletter.

So far, the search for the ‘promised land’ of alternative crops, which has been going on for years in a number of countries and regions, has proved almost fruitless.

The growers appear to be jockeying for position ahead of the next meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP7) to the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which is due to he held in Delhi next year.

They are asking that they be allowed to participate at the meeting so as to present their case before any decision is taken to phase out tobacco cultivation; a request that seems doomed given the secrecy that surrounds these meetings.

And the growers are urging world leaders also to come up with recommendations to eliminate the illegal trade in tobacco products.

And here they are pushing at an open door. The illegal trade eats into government tobacco revenues and its elimination has been a pet project of the WHO for some time.