Tobacco as an obstacle to development: the case of Malawi
January 21, 2020
Par: communication@cnct.fr
Dernière mise à jour: August 6, 2024
Temps de lecture: 14 minutes
Summary
- From the illusion of economic benefit to addiction to the tobacco industry
- The impoverishment of farmers
- Child labour, a humanitarian scandal
- Multi-generational poverty
- Destruction of the ecosystem by tobacco cultivation
- Join the FCTC to regain sovereignty
For decades, the argument of development and economic prosperity has been used by tobacco companies to push countries and local populations to start growing tobacco leaves. Concentrated at 90% in middle and low-income countries [1], tobacco production is singled out by the World Health Organization (WHO) as an aggravating factor of poverty [2], incompatible with the Sustainable Development Goals [3] (SDGs), defined by the United Nations. Malawi is one of the last countries not to have signed the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the first and only international public health treaty. It is a telling example to understand the structural inadequacy between the irreconcilable interests of the tobacco industry and the SDGs.
With nearly 130,000 tons produced each year, Malawi is the world's seventh largest producer of tobacco [4]. This predominance of tobacco in the Malawian economy is partly due to a historical reason. Since the 1960s, the intensification of tobacco cultivation has been viewed favorably by the government, seeking to make up for the economic backwardness of a newly independent country [5]. However, while its political situation is stable, it has excellent resources, and it is surrounded by dynamic neighbors, like Tanzania, Malawi is a country devastated by poverty [6].
Because of its harmful effects on health, public authorities first address the issue of smoking from a health perspective. However, tobacco is not limited to the issue of public health, and refers to broader issues of economic growth, education, poverty, and the environment, which are particularly important for certain developing countries.
From the illusion of economic benefit to addiction to the tobacco industry
The tobacco industry, having understood for more than forty years the economic and commercial potential that Malawi could represent for it, has developed a rhetoric tending to praise and exaggerate its contribution to the development of the country's economy.
At first glance, tobacco seems to occupy an indispensable place in this southern African country, as it contributes so much to the national economy. In terms of tons, Malawi exports twenty times more tobacco than tea, which is the country's second largest export product.
Considered as "green oil", tobacco appears to be a real financial windfall: it is estimated that it corresponds to 70% of foreign currency earnings, bringing more than 160 million dollars to the national economy each year [7]. In fact, the capacity of the State to invest in infrastructure, transport, education or health, is closely linked to the revenues generated by the tobacco industry. In other words, far from creating the conditions favorable to sustainable development, cigarette companies have made Malawi the most tobacco-dependent country in the world [8].
Malawi's reliance on tobacco cultivation is pernicious for two reasons [9].
First, this situation tends to make the country extremely vulnerable to fluctuations in the price of tobacco. The increase in domestic production and the decrease in demand from a growing number of countries have contributed to reducing the income generated by tobacco in Malawi. The economic consequences for the population are direct: in five years, per capita income has decreased by 30%.
Furthermore, Malawi is characterized by difficult climatic conditions: the country is often confronted with floods and droughts. By devoting a large part of its arable land to tobacco cultivation, the country exposes itself to permanent food insecurity, malnutrition, leading to episodes of serious food shortages. It can be considered that a reconversion of tobacco crops to food agriculture could contribute to ensuring its food sovereignty.
The impoverishment of farmers
While it is undeniable that tobacco growing generates a certain wealth, this only benefits a tiny portion of the local population [10]. Production is also scattered: in Malawi, 440,000 people make a living from tobacco growing [11].
Outside of large, high-yield industrial farms, this remains a very unprofitable activity [12]. A large proportion of small producers, too poor to obtain loans for other types of agriculture, enter into agreements with tobacco manufacturers. The latter agree to allocate the necessary funds to the farmer, as well as a given quantity of necessary chemicals (fertilizers, pesticides, etc.). For his part, the small farmer must pay the entirety of his production to the manufacturers, according to a price defined in advance. Research on this subject tends to show that producers often underestimate the costs linked to production and overestimate the financial returns of this activity.
At the end of the season, the revenue from tobacco sold is regularly insufficient to repay the debts incurred by the farmer. In this way, the latter starts again the following year in an even more unfavourable financial situation [13], bound by contract with the tobacco industry, thus preventing him from turning to more profitable agriculture.
The lack of profitability of tobacco growing can be explained in two ways: the two main tobacco merchants in Malawi, Alliance One International and Universal Corporation, take advantage of a favorable balance of power to put downward pressure on the selling price of tobacco leaves [14] (breakdown of production into small units, weak means of negotiation). Then, according to Marty Otañez, researcher and anthropologist at the University of Colorado, this price compression is also encouraged by these two actors through the purchase of contraband tobacco from Mozambique and Zambia, countries bordering Malawi [15].
Child labour, a humanitarian scandal
Tobacco growing is all the less profitable because it is a particularly demanding activity. It is estimated that for a single hectare of tobacco cultivation, up to 3,000 hours of work per year and per person are necessary. To give just one element of comparison, the same area intended for the cultivation of maize requires only 265 hours[16]. Thus, although no precise study exists on this subject, it is estimated that around 80,000 people work on tobacco farms in Malawi [17], whose work days can be up to twelve hours, in crushing heat.
Above all, the presence of children in tobacco fields is particularly problematic for health reasons. First, to grow tobacco leaves, large quantities of chemicals are required [18], most of the time poured without any protection, endangering the health of farmers and children: the planters are often unaware of the dangers to which they are exposed.
Then, when tobacco leaves are harvested with bare hands, some of the nicotine present in the plant is absorbed by the body through the skin. This nicotine poisoning – a powerful neurotoxin – causes nausea, vomiting, headaches, discomfort, and cardiac arrhythmia. Called green tobacco disease, this phenomenon affects children even more, given their small size – relative to the high doses of nicotine absorbed. Thus, up to 54 milligrams of nicotine can end up in a child's body in a single day, the equivalent of fifty cigarettes. In such quantities, nicotine is a devastating element in children, as it seriously affects their cognitive development [19].
Multi-generational poverty
Hired on tobacco plantations, children are removed from any schooling and any prospects of advancement. In a study carried out in 2000, 25% of Malawian farmers had received no formal education, 40% could not read, 40% could not write, and 40% could not count [20]. Thus, tobacco cultivation in Malawi, far from enriching the population, traps some of them in multigenerational cycles of poverty that are difficult to break. According to the same study, among these 80,000 children, 10% do not attend primary school, and 91% do not attend secondary school (looking only at the richest quintile).
While the tobacco industry has made numerous declarations of good intentions on this subject, arguing its desire to end the exploitation of children, the fact remains that this free labor has saved $10.6 million between 2000 and 2016[21]. Thus, we observe once again the structural incompatibility between the financial interests of the tobacco industry and the sustainable development goals as defined by the United Nations.
Destruction of the ecosystem by tobacco cultivation
By definition, tobacco cultivation, which is extremely chemical-intensive, is in total opposition to the principle of sustainable agriculture. Indeed, the massive use of fertilizers, pesticides, fumigants, herbicides and fungicides results in the poisoning and infertilization of soils, and the pollution of groundwater.
In Malawi, deforestation is a national issue. Every year, 30,000 to 40,000 hectares of forest disappear, leading to disruption of the local ecosystem, the impoverishment of biodiversity and the disruption of biochemical and ecological cycles [22]. According to a study[23] published in 2019 by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), satellite observations confirm that the country lost 14% of its forest area between 2000 and 2016. The empirical data collected show that the rate of deforestation in Malawi, one of the highest on the continent, leads to a reduction in the population's accessibility to drinking water. The destruction of forests is equivalent, in available water, to a decrease in precipitation of 9% since 2000, and 18% since 1990.
Climate change, which is expected to increase erratic rainfall, is putting Malawi at serious risk of water shortages, with 171,000 Malawians still without access to safe drinking water.
However, the tobacco industry has a heavy responsibility for Malawi's deforestation. On the one hand, it is constantly looking for new areas to grow crops. On the other hand, Malawi offers quality wood and a cheap energy resource for drying tobacco [24]. In total, this sector is responsible for 40% of the country's deforestation since 1970 [25].
Faced with this problem, the tobacco industry has been involved in plans to slow deforestation: in 2016, nearly 11,000 trees were distributed by the industry to farmers. However, due to the lack of concordance between deliveries and seasons, lack of coordination with local authorities and monitoring, only 257 trees survived [26].
Join the FCTC to regain sovereignty
According to Marty Otañez [27], the two main tobacco merchants act as a cartel and control directly and through third parties the origin of public policies in Malawi. The presence of these companies in decision-making circles has a triple objective: to influence government decisions on issues related to the commercial development of tobacco, to prevent any decision that goes against the interests of the industry, and to ensure that tobacco prices are kept low. In other words, the economic and political action of the tobacco industry raises the question of Malawi's sovereignty.
Given the above, it is hardly surprising that Malawi is one of the last countries in the world not to have signed the FCTC, whose main mission is to reduce tobacco consumption and supply. The convention [28], as stipulated in its article 17, also commits to offering tobacco workers and farmers a credible and economically viable alternative to tobacco growing, in particular through assistance in converting to more profitable crops, less energy-intensive and less harmful to people and the environment. Far more than a hindrance, the tobacco industry is a real obstacle to the viability of certain regions of the world, opposing 13 of the 16 UN Sustainable Development Goals.
©Generation Without Tobacco
[1] Maria Zafeiridou, Nicholas S Hopkinson, Nikolaos Voulvoulis, “Cigarette Smoking: An Assessment of Tobacco's Global Environmental Footprint Across Its Entire Supply Chain”, American Chemical Society, July 3, 2018.
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acs.est.8b01533?rand=r0fqiked
[2] World Health Organization. “Tobacco worsens poverty in countries” https://www.who.int/tobacco/communications/events/wntd/2004/tobaccofacts_nations/fr/
[3] United Nations. “17 Goals to Save the World.” https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/fr/objectifs-de-developpement-durable/
[4] Margarete C Kulik, Stella Aguinaga Bialous, Spy Munthali, Wendy Max, “Tobacco growing and the sustainable development goals, Malawi”, Bull World Health Organ, 1er May 2017. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5418823/pdf/BLT.16.175596.pdf
[5] BROWSE Martin. “A century of growth? A history of tobacco products and marketing in Malawi. 1890-2005”. Institute of development, policy and management. October 2011.
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/a429/d2a86a5512553580f11ead042eb258258aa8.pdf
[6] DOUET Marion, Le Monde, “Why Malawi’s economy is still not a hit”, May 31, 2018. https://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2018/05/31/pourquoi-l-economie-du-malawi-ne-fait-toujours-pas-un-tabac_5307548_3212.html
[7] DAVIES Peter. “Malawi: addicted to the leaf”, BMJ Global Health. 2003.
https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/12/1/91.full
[8] Ibid
[9] Ibid
[10] Millington, A. and W. Jepson. Land, “Tropics: Changing Agricultural Landscapes. Springer », June 2008.
[11] Ibid
[12] Donald Makoka, Jeffrey Drope, Adriana Appau, Ronald Labonte, Qing Li, Fastone Goma, Richard Zulu, Peter Magati, Raphael Lencucha, “Costs, revenues and profits: an economic analysis of smallholder tobacco farmer livelihoods in Malawi”, BMJ Global Health, 2017. https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/26/6/634
[13] Ibid
[14] Ibid
[15] NATOEZ Marty, “Global leaf companies control the tobacco market in Malawi”, Tobacco Control, 2007.
[16] Stop-Tabac. “Tobacco cultivation: socio-economic and environmental impacts”.
https://www.stop-tabac.ch/fr/la-culture-du-tabac
[17] Ibid
[18] Patricia A. McDaniel, Gina Solomon, Ruth E. Malone, “The Tobacco Industry and Pesticide Regulations: Case Studies from Tobacco Industry Archives,” Environmental Health Perspectives, December 2005.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1314901/pdf/ehp0113-001659.pdf
[19] Ibid
[20] Torres L. “The smoking business. Tobacco workers in Malawi”, Institute for Applied Social Science; 2000.
[21] Ibid
[22] Susan Ngwira, Teiji Watanabe, “An Analysis of the Causes of Deforestation in Malawi: A Case of Mwazisi”, Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, February 4, 2019.
[23] Annie Mwayi Mapulanga and Hisahiro Naito, “Effect of deforestation on access to clean drinking water”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, April 23, 2019.
[24] Ibid
[25] ASH, “Big Tobacco’s Big Environmental Impact,” April 6, 2019.
https://ash.org.uk/media-and-news/big-tobaccos-big-environmental-impact/
[26] Ibid
[27] Ibid
[28] WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/42812/9242591017.pdf?sequence=1
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