Tag: farming

  • Malawi Commits to ‘Decent Work’

    Malawi Commits to ‘Decent Work’

    Image: Tobacco Reporter archive

    Malawi’s government has committed to ensuring that there is “decent work” for tobacco sector employees, according to Malawi24.com.

    Hlalerwayo Kelvin Nyangulu, labor commissioner, made the statements during a workshop on strengthening knowledge of labor laws, issues and compliance. “In 2021, the employment act was amended, and we actually abolished tenants labor in Malawi,” Nyangulu said. “So, (the) government is really committed to ensure that we have decent work in the tobacco sector.

    “What is important now is that a decision has been made, a law has been enacted, so what is happening is that as I speak, tenants labor is abolished in Malawi. As you may know, tenants labor was providing fertile ground for child labor; it was also providing fertile ground for forced labor; now that it is abolished, that’s why we are talking about developing standard contracts that will define the relationship between employer and the worker in the tobacco sector,” said Nyangulu.

    Currently, the push is for tobacco workers to be paid monthly wages, according to Nyangulu. “You see, tobacco is produced by smallholder farmers and large estate owners. We have seen that some farmers are complaining that they cannot afford to pay the monthly wages, but since we have the law, we just need to find ways how these farmers can be empowered so that they comply with the law.”

    “What has prompted us to do this is that as ECAM [Employers Consultative Association of Malawi] under ILO, we carried out a training needs assessment, and one of the things that was highlighted there was that many companies or personnel companies are not aware of international labor standards,” said George Khaki, executive director of ECAM. “Actually, it was 62 percent of them who indicated that they were not aware of international labor standards.”

    “So we thought this was a good platform for us to bring the knowledge on international labor standards today, but we are also trying to promote the use of standard contracts; we know that tenants labor was abolished in 2021 in the employment act, which means there will be normal employment relationship for players in the tobacco (sector), and to facilitate that, we are developing a standard contract that can be adopted and be used by the majority of players that do not have capability to develop contrasts,” said Khaki.

  • Tobacco Farmers Urge End to Pakistan’s Advance Tax

    Tobacco Farmers Urge End to Pakistan’s Advance Tax

    Photo: Taco Tuinstra

    Tobacco farmers in Pakistan on Monday urged the government to withdraw PKR380 ($1.76) per kilogram advance tax on the tobacco leaf, otherwise they would stage a protest in Islamabad.

    Addressing a press conference at Islamabad National Press Club, president of the Mehnatkash Labour Federation, Ibrar Ullah, said that price of tobacco per kilogram in the open market was PKR256 per kilogram while the advance tax on it was PKR380 per kilogram, according to The News.

    He said the advance tax on the tobacco leaf was hurting the sale of the crop in the market and this would render over 15,000 labourers and 20,000 families of the farmers jobless.

    The president of the Kissan Board, Rizwan Ullah, also rejected the imposition of the advance tax on the crop, saying the government was destroying the value of the crop through such tactics instead of providing them relief.

    He said that all farmers from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province would stage a sit-in in Islamabad if the advance tax on the crop was not withdrawn.

    Liaqat Yousafzai of the Kashtkar Coordination Council KP termed the imposition of the advance tax on the tobacco crop as “public enmity.”

    He said that rates of tobacco were increasing around the world, while they were decreasing in Pakistan.

  • Demand drives crop size increase

    The Tobacco Board of India has increased Karnataka’s authorized 2013–14 crop size by about four percent on that of 2012–13, according to a report in the latest issue of the BBM Bommidala Group newsletter.

    The crop size has been set at 102 million kg, up from 98 million kg in 2012–13 and 100 million kg in each of the previous two years.

    The increase is said to have been driven by international demand for the crop.

    Traders had sought a crop of 112 million kg and growers one of 105 million kg at a recent board meeting, the report said.

  • Reynolds agrees to more farm labor talks

    Reynolds American Inc. has agreed to resume discussions with the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) about ways to address alleged farm-worker abuse, according to a story by Federico Martinez for The Blade (Toledo, Ohio).

    Reynolds was said to have agreed to resume the meetings after the farm-labor union and advocacy group staged a protest outside the tobacco company’s annual shareholders meeting in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA.

    “It appears that there is some interest on their part,” said FLOC president Baldemar Velasquez, who added that he hadn’t heard from Reynolds’ officials since December. “Whether or not they are sincere about addressing the concerns is another issue.”

    Velasquez and other critics say they want Reynolds’ officials to address several issues, including the human trafficking of workers from Mexico and Central America, and the numerous human-rights abuses from which they say tobacco-industry laborers frequently suffer.

    FLOC’s primary mission was to persuade the tobacco company to support farm workers’ efforts to form a union, said Velasquez.

    Many tobacco farm workers lived in labor camps with inadequate or non-functioning toilets or showers and other substandard conditions. They also suffered from nicotine poisoning and exposure to dangerous pesticides, he added.

    Reynolds’ spokesman David Howard said the two sides hadn’t met since December but they had communicated by phone and email.

    “We’ve had a series of discussions since December,” Howard said. “They are ongoing and we will continue meeting and having dialogue.”