NAIROBI, March 23 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's Ministry of Health in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations on Wednesday launched an initiative to hasten an end to tobacco farming in the country.
The Tobacco-Free Farms project, launched in the western Kenyan county of Migori will support local subsistence farmers' shift to the cultivation of alternatives like legumes that are less harmful to the environment and human health.
Mutahi Kagwe, the cabinet secretary in the Ministry of Health, said that a gradual phasing out of tobacco farming at the smallholder level will boost food security and attainment of health-related sustainable development goals in the country.
According to Kagwe, Kenya has become a trailblazer across Africa in accelerating a switch from tobacco farming to nutritious and eco-friendly alternatives such as beans. He said that despite contributing about 1 percent to the country's gross domestic product (GDP), tobacco had worsened the burden of respiratory diseases in the country, besides harming vital ecosystems such as watersheds. Tobacco farming had also escalated gender inequality, rural poverty, deforestation and soil degradation in the country, prompting the need to shift to alternatives that guarantee better incomes, improved water and soil quality.
The Ministry of Health statistics indicate the country loses more than 6,000 people annually due to tobacco-related diseases while an estimate of 2.7 million adults and 220,000 children consume tobacco products daily.
Juliet Nabyonga, the acting WHO representative in Kenya, said that reducing tobacco production and consumption in the country will boost health outcomes and transform rural livelihoods.
Nabyonga said that Kenya was among the first countries to ratify the legally binding WHO framework convention on tobacco control in 2004, adding that the country had also enacted progressive legislation and policies to facilitate the adoption of alternative crops by smallholder farmers.
Carla Mucavi, the FAO representative in Kenya, said the Tobacco-Free Farms initiative aims to strengthen the resilience of local subsistence farmers through the adoption of healthy, nutritious and environmentally sound alternative crops. ■
