Call for supply chain to be broken

India aims to reduce tobacco consumption by 30 percent during the next three years; so it needs quickly to promote the farming of alternative crops by tobacco growers, according to an Indo-Asian News Service report.

Tobacco exports annually bring in $1.5 billion.

The 30 percent target India set at the seventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP7) to the  World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), will reportedly be backed by various UN entities including the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Their task will be to help India identify the best alternative revenue sources for tobacco growers.

Amal Pusp, director of the National Tobacco Control Programme, told IANS that alternative crop farming could not be implemented immediately.

“First of all, India aims to reduce the consumption of tobacco by 30 percent and, when this happens, the alternate crop farming for tobacco growers will be immediately implemented,” he said.

“This will be supported by the UN and various ministries like agriculture, environmental and health.”

The CoP7 was said to have seen India leading the move to prevent the intervention of the tobacco industries in the framing of anti-tobacco policies.

“We want to help the tobacco growers,” Vera Luiza da Costa e Silva, head of the FCTC convention secretariat told IANS.

“The point is that tobacco industries are using farmers at the forefront for their own benefits. “The tobacco supply chain has to be broken.”