The 10th of May 2022 Parliamentary Order paper bore an intriguing item- Numbered 9. This was a Motion for a resolution of Parliament urging the government to consider tobacco farmers from the west Nile sub Region and other parts of the country in the government strategy to compensate tobacco farmers. To its credit, the mover was Hon. Feta Geoffrey, Member of Parliament (MP) of Ayivu Division East, and its Seconder, Hon. Musa Noah, MP Koboko North.
Worth asking is whether such a strategy exists, from what revenue streams is it financed, does it fit in Uganda’s vision 2040, National Development plan III, or her international, regional, and national legal obligations, the answer is no to all.
Laudable is Uganda’s ratification and domestication of the World Health Organisation Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (WHOFCTC).
In dissuasion of the MPs’ call on the government to make good, on the compensation of tobacco farmers, Article 5.3 of the WHOFCTC implores state parties, Uganda inclusive, that ‘In setting and implementing their public health policies with respect to tobacco control, Parties shall act to protect these policies from commercial and other vested interests of the Tobacco Industry (TI) in accordance with national law.’ Section 19 (1) (a) of our Tobacco Control Act of 2015 as amended, impresses it on the government to protect the public against the influence of and interference by the commercial and other vested interests of the TI.
In light of the above, I humbly call out on the government to ignore the call for compensation but heed those about investing in transitioning tobacco farmers to alternative livelihoods such as food crops or plantation crops such as tea and coffee.
Alternative livelihoods to tobacco farming are an all-fits it all in government programs such as human capital for development, increased household income, food security, environmental protection, elimination of children from hazardous labor et cetera.
It is no wonder, that the Addis Ababa Agenda for financing for Development of 2015 recommends for governments, having concluded that tobacco products are responsible for Non-Communicable Diseases, recommended the expansion of tax bases and earmarking the same as financing so as to compel polluters to pay for the harm they cause, in smoke or littering of cigarettes buts.
So as to sustain tobacco farmers to transition to alternative livelihoods, the WHOFCTC in Article 17 provides that ‘Parties shall, in cooperation with each other and with competent international and regional intergovernmental organizations, promote, as appropriate, economically viable alternatives for tobacco workers, growers and, as the case may be, individual sellers.’
As this transitioning intervention delays, Tobacco farmers continue to be trapped in abject poverty as the tobacco industry profiteers from their plight, but, alternative crops exist, for them to transit to permanent crops such as Tea which unlike, tobacco’s 1-year life span, has a life span of 40 or 50 years’ the website, www.palaisdesthes.com recounts. Tea is doing well in the Districts of Bushenyi, Kabarole, and Kyenjonjo in co-existence with the environment and the Kihihi tobacco farmers have since transitioned to Rice and like cereals growing. Operation Wealth Creation activities are available to help them hit the ground running.
Granted Tobacco demands for trees at the curing stage, globalforestwatch.org confirmed that: From 2001 to 2021, Koboko lost 6.97kha of tree cover, equivalent to a 19% decrease in tree cover since 2000, and 2.12Mt of CO₂ equivalent (CO₂e). While in 2010, Ayivu had 1.22kha of tree cover, extending over 3.1% of its land area. In 2021, it lost 2.38ha of tree cover, equivalent to 1.20kt of CO₂e.
Tobacco products such as cigarettes and their related activities not only harm their consumers, it starts with the farmers at the growing stage. The Tobacco plant contains the poisonous nicotine adhering to the fresh green leaves which can be absorbed through the skin, particularly in wet conditions (morning dew, rain, sweat). This may result in an acute nicotine poisoning known as Green Tobacco Sickness (GTS). GTS leads to dizziness, nausea, vomiting, headaches, and weak muscles, according to Fotedar in his 2017 publication titled: Green Tobacco Sickness: A Brief Review, published in the Indian Journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 21(3), 101–104.
As tobacco harm abounds, Nargis N, Nyamurungi K, Baine SO, Kadobera D, in their 2017 report titled: The health cost of tobacco use in Uganda, Health Policy and Planning, 32, 2017, 1153–1160 found that “The total direct health care and non-healthcare cost of tobacco-related illnesses in Uganda were USD 41.56 million. The total indirect morbidity and mortality costs from the loss of productivity due to tobacco-related illnesses were USD 11.91 million and USD 73.01 million, respectively.”
Be that as it may, the government last raised tobacco levies from 0.2 USD per Kg to 0.8 USD per Kg on leaves consigned for export in 2020 when it repealed section 7 of the Finance Act, of 2014 and amended it in section 23 of the TCA and thence defining the term unprocessed leaf of tobacco in 2021, there is no tax on tobacco or its products this year.
Yet, the World Health Organisation Global Tobacco Control Report of 2019 that scaled the Excise and Total Tax Share in the Price of a Pack of the Most Sold Brand of Cigarettes in 2018 concluded that Uganda’s is at a paltry 38.9% while WHO recommends at least a 70% specific excise tax burden on tobacco products. The Report sets a policy target of at least 75% total tax burden of the most sold brand of cigarettes. Uganda is 36.1%, a lost opportunity for its Domestic Revenue Mobilization on cigarettes. This would have helped roll out the WHO best Buys for reducing NCDs.
This year’s 31st of May 2022, Uganda’s Ministry of Health, the World Health Organisation (WHO), and public health champions celebrated World No Tobacco Day (WNTD). This focused on the many ways in which tobacco threatens the environment we live in.
Since the TCA gained legal force on the 16th of May 2017, the government has defended its legal framework in court thrice (2017 at the Constitutional Court and East African Court of Justice and, in 2020 at the High Court) it ought to do the same through funding alternative livelihoods for these tobacco farmers to transition rather than this one-off and unsustainable compensation.
TALIBITA MOSES; Is a Lecturer of Natural Resources Laws at the School of Sciences of Nkumba University, mtalibita@nkumbauniversity.ac.ug