Abstract
"(...) This book is based on the results of research funded by IDRC, drawing from nearly 20 research projects in LMICs including: Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Ghana, India, Kenya, Lebanon, Malawi, Uganda, Vietnam, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The three largest projects (in Bangladesh, Kenya and Malawi) all initially set out to assess farmers’ experiences with tobacco farming, their reasons for farming tobacco and their desire to switch to alternatives or not. Building on that, the research then shifted to working with those same farmers to assess possible alternatives, test and compare the viability of other crops and their contribution to livelihoods. While the Kenyan project aimed to replace one cash crop with another, in Bangladesh the focus was on assessing how to make the transition to diversified food production. In Malawi, the aim was to help tobacco farmers diversify to limit their reliance on tobacco but not necessarily to replace tobacco altogether in the short term. (This project also attempted to take into account other sources of farmer vulnerability such as the impact of climate variability.) Smaller projects tended to focus on more specific issues such as occupational health impacts, the knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of tobacco farmers and the impact of subsidies on tobacco farming. In 2010, IDRC’s Natacha Lecours undertook a comprehensive review of the literature and the work supported by IDRC in order to get a better sense of what was known to date and the research gaps that remained. 1 It also provided an important background document for an IDRC-sponsored international workshop, “Consolidating the Research on Alternative Livelihoods to Tobacco Farming in LMICs,” in June 2011. This workshop brought together the majority of the active researchers in this field (32 people from 17 countries, largely LMICs). The objectives were to: - Identify what was known and what research gaps still existed regarding the health, environmental and socioeconomic impacts of tobacco production; - Identify enablers and barriers to transitioning out of tobacco production; - Develop a list of research priorities to address key gaps; - Plan a dissemination strategy of knowledge to date.
The health impacts of tobacco production in LMICs was one of the knowledge gaps identified. While some research results on the topic from high-income countries could be extrapolated to LMICs, participants felt that the impacts were likely to be even higher in LMICs given the different working conditions and the lack of protective equipment. IDRC-supported research is now ongoing in this area and initial results appear to confirm that concern. The workshop results also indicated that more evidence was needed on the national determinants of demand for tobacco leaf. While the global demand for leaf continues to grow (something participants also felt there was a need to reconfirm), farmers faced fluctuating demand and prices for their leaves at the national level, which the tobacco industry blamed on tobacco-control measures. A number of studies were subsequently commissioned to assess these issues and form the first section of this book".
