INFORMATION NIGERIA
The tobacco industry is flourishing in Africa due to regulatory lapses, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said.
The agency also disclosed that while the number of people using tobacco products decreased in other parts of the world, it rose in Africa.
According to the WHO, tobacco users in the African Region increased from an estimated 64 million adult users in 2000 to 73 million in 2018.
It attributed the rise partly to the increased production of tobacco products and aggressive marketing by the tobacco industry.
In a message to commemorate 2023 World No Tobacco Day on Wednesday, May 31, WHO Africa Region Director Matshidiso Moeti, a doctor, said the solution to the crisis was for tobacco farmers to switch to planting food crops.
This year’s ‘World No Tobacco Day’ theme is ‘Grow Food, Not Tobacco’. The theme aims to raise awareness about alternative crop production and marketing opportunities for tobacco farmers and encourage them to grow sustainable, nutritious crops.
The theme also seeks to expose the tobacco industry’s efforts to interfere with attempts to substitute tobacco growing with sustainable crops, thereby worsening the global food crisis, Matshidiso said.
She explained that the tobacco epidemic was one of the biggest public health challenges facing the world, killing more than eight million people yearly.
“Tobacco growing and production exacerbates nutrition and food insecurity. Tobacco farming destroys ecosystems, depletes soil fertility, contaminates water bodies and pollutes the environment. Any profits from tobacco as a cash crop may not offset the damage to sustainable food production in low- and middle-income countries.
“Nearly 828 million people are facing hunger globally. Of these, 278 million (20 per cent) are in Africa. In addition, 57.9 per cent of people in Africa suffer from moderate to severe food insecurity. This jeopardizes the region’s attainment of SDG 2, which aims to end hunger, achieve food security and improved…
