Commentary: Tobacco control and tobacco farming in African countries
Open accessAbstract
During the past decade, tobacco leaf production has shifted from high-income countries to developing countries, particularly those in Africa. Most African governments promote tobacco farming as a way to alleviate poverty. The economic benefit of tobacco farming has been used by the tobacco industry to block tobacco control policies. The tobacco industry is active in promoting the alleged positive aspects of tobacco farming and in 'protecting' farmers from what they portray as unfair tobacco control regulations that reduce demand. Tobacco farming has many negative consequences for the health and well-being of farmers, as well as for the environment and the long-term well-being of the countries concerned. We provide an overview of tobacco farming issues in Africa. Encompassing multi-dimensional issues of economic development, there is far more to it than tobacco control questions.
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National policies can conflict with public health, for example by listing tobacco as a principal cash crop.
“national policies in conflict with public health, for example, listing tobacco as a principal cash crop.35”
From Needs of LMIC-based tobacco control advocates to counter tobacco industry policy interference: insights from semi-structured interviews (2020) · cites this paper as [35]
Section II (‘The economics of tobacco farming’) says most African governments promote tobacco farming for its perceived economic benefits, while the Discussion describes the tension between those benefits and tobacco control. Our copy does not say that a national policy lists tobacco as a principal cash crop, so it supports the broader conflict but not the specific example. (LLM, conf=0.84)
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Matthes, B. K., Robertson, L., & Gilmore, A. B. (2020) · BMJ Open · doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2020-044710 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
Ngarava, S. (2020) · Land Use Policy · doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.105000 · Cited by 21 · see citing works
- Authors
- Hu, T.-W., & Lee, A. H.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
- Public Health Institute (US)
- Corresponding author
- Lee, Anita H
- Venue
- Journal of Public Health Policy
- Published
- 2014-11-27
- Volume
- 36
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 41-51
- ISSN
- 0197-5897 (ISSN-L)
- 1745-655X
- PMC
- PMC4412848
- OpenAlex
- W2013912771
- Cited by
- 66
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 2 · 2014: 1
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Journal of Public Health Policy (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (4r01tw009295-05)
- Fogarty International Center (R01-TW009295)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Global Public Health Policies and Epidemiology
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Smoking Behavior and Cessation
- Social Sciences › Health › Occupational Health and Global Justice
- Keywords
- tobacco control, tobacco cultivation, tobacco leaf production, tobacco industry, poverty reduction, economic development, farmer health, environmental impact, Africa
- MeSH terms
- Africa, Agriculture, Developing Countries, Employment, Environment, Humans, Occupational Diseases, Occupational Exposure, Tobacco Industry
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