What is the gov't doing about tobacco cultivation?

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Dear Editor,

This is an open letter to Health Minister Rudyard Spencer.

Over the last few months, I have listened and observed throughout the media the debate over tobacco control and the pending passage of new legislation to restrict smoking and control the distribution and the marketing of tobacco and its related products. These new measures, according to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, are aimed at providing safeguards to the individual's health and protecting the environment.

The FCTC convention stipulates as well that the government take proactive steps to discourage the growing of tobacco and provide alternatives means of livelihood to farmers who would be so displaced. However, the facts indicate widespread tobacco growing across Jamaica.

In fact, a recent study by RADA on tobacco cultivation in Jamaica gives rise to a number of issues. The study reveals that "although tobacco farming has gone on in Jamaica for a long time, the large-scale commercial production of tobacco almost disappeared during the early 1990s. In the past two or three years, however, there has been resurgence in the cultivation of this crop". It went on to estimate that a total of 310.5 acres of land in several parishes are now in tobacco production with an estimated annual farm-gate value of $397 million.

In some instances, farmers are leaving the growing of other crops to cultivating the lucrative tobacco because they are earning a healthy living from the cultivation of tobacco. According to the RADA study, "When asked whether they considered tobacco to be a more payable option to other crops, an overwhelming 90 per cent responded positively."

The government therefore faces a dilemma because it is a signatory to the FCTC and should be guided by the expressed intent of the declaration. The convention requires governments to pass legislation to control tobacco consumption and discourage the production of tobacco as an agricultural crop. However, as it stands today in Jamaica, there is no government action to discourage tobacco cultivation although other legislation is being developed.

On top of this, the Tobacco Industry Regulation Act of 1970 remains on the books in Jamaica. This Act established and incorporated the Tobacco Industry Control Authority and empowered it to, among other things, "promote the interests and efficiency of the tobacco industry in Jamaica, to assist in its development and to promote the welfare of persons engaged in that industry". Based on this Act alone, which remains in effect, tobacco farmers would be entitled to assistance and protection from the government for the production of tobacco. Included in the Act is the provision by the authority "to cultivate, cure or process tobacco and manufacture any tobacco product, and purchase, prepare for market, store, transport, distribute, sell or export any tobacco or tobacco product".

Any action by the government to discourage and frustrate the cultivation and marketing of tobacco would place it in contravention of its own regulation, and leaving the regulation in place puts it in conflict with its international obligation under the FCTC convention. Therefore, what is the minister with responsibility for protecting the health of the nation doing about this state of affairs? What is the government doing about the proliferation of tobacco cultivation in Jamaica?

In the interim, the new drive in our farming community to grow tobacco as a legitimate crop has given rise to a relatively new product called "grabba" and a new cigarette invention dubbed "roll your own". In this "roll your own" exercise, the smoker is encouraged, through written instructions, to roll (make) his own cigarette for fractions less than the manufactured brands.

The government seems passive and Jamaica continues to be a non-compliant signatory, particularly in this area of tobacco growing. I wonder if the chairman of the Heart Foundation of Jamaica and the Jamaica Coalition for Tobacco Control, Dr Knox Hagley, has a view on this.

Angellique Virtue

angellique_virtue@yahoo.com

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What is the gov't doing about tobacco cultivation?