Tobacco.org

Alternative crops needed to swap tobacco 

THE Tanzania Tobacco Control Forum (TTCF) has urged the government to introduce alternative cash crops in tobacco growing areas because the crop's growers encountered more health hazards than direct benefits from their efforts.

The Chairperson of the forum, Ms Lutgard Kagaruki, told members of the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture and Lands and the Investment and Trade Committee at a seminar here yesterday, that tobacco was as harmful to growers as it was to consumers.

In 2003/04, she said, Tanzania earned 55.5 million US dollars from tobacco exports, but the earnings did not appear to have any impact on the lives of tobacco growers in Sikonge and Namtumbo districts, she said.

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