Faculty of Medicine, School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
Economic and Health Policy Research, American Cancer Society, Atlanta, GA.
Nicotine Tob Res. 2020 Dec 12;22(12):2238-2245. doi: 10.1093/ntr/ntz173.
Tobacco production continues to increase in low- and middle-income countries creating complications for tobacco control efforts. There is the need to understand and address the global tobacco leaf supply as a means of decreasing tobacco consumption and improving farmers livelihoods in line with Article 17 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. This study aims to understand the reasons why farmers grow tobacco and identify factors that influence these reasons.
Primary survey data (N = 1770) collected in Kenya, Malawi, and Zambia in the 2013-2014 farming season. Data analysis uses both descriptive and multinomial logistical regression methods.
Majority of farmers started and are currently growing tobacco because they believed it was the only economically viable crop. Compared with Malawi, farmers in Kenya and Zambia have a 0.2 and 0.4 lower probability of growing tobacco, respectively because they perceive it as the only economically viable crop, but a 0.04 and 0.2 higher probability of growing tobacco, respectively because they believe it is highly lucrative. There are district/county differences in the reasons provided with some districts having a majority of the farmers citing the existence of a ready market or incentives from the tobacco industry. Statistically significant factors influencing these reasons are the educational level and age of the household head, land allocated to tobacco and debts.
There is the need to address the unique features of each district to increase successful uptake of alternative livelihoods. One consistent finding is that farmers' perceived economic viability contributes to tobacco growing.
This study finds that perceived economic viability of tobacco is the dominant factor in the decisions to grow tobacco by smallholder farmers in Malawi, Kenya, and Zambia. There is the need to more deeply understand what contributes to farmers' perceived viability of a crop. Understanding and addressing these factors may increase the successful uptake of alternative livelihoods to tobacco. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that a one-size fits all alternative livelihood intervention is less likely to be effective as each district has unique features affecting farmers' decisions on growing tobacco.
在中低收入国家，烟草生产持续增加，给烟草控制工作带来了诸多问题。有必要了解和解决全球烟叶供应问题，以减少烟草消费，改善农民的生计，这符合世界卫生组织《烟草控制框架公约》第 17 条的规定。本研究旨在了解农民种植烟草的原因，并确定影响这些原因的因素。
本研究采用描述性和多项逻辑回归方法，分析了 2013-2014 种植季在肯尼亚、马拉维和赞比亚收集的 1770 名主要调查对象的数据。
大多数农民开始并继续种植烟草，是因为他们认为这是唯一经济可行的作物。与马拉维相比，肯尼亚和赞比亚的农民种植烟草的可能性分别低 0.2 和 0.4，因为他们认为这是唯一经济可行的作物，但种植烟草的可能性分别高 0.04 和 0.2，因为他们认为这是高利润的作物。不同地区/县的农民给出的原因存在差异，一些地区的大多数农民表示，存在现成的市场或烟草业的激励措施。影响这些原因的统计上显著的因素是户主的教育水平和年龄、分配给烟草的土地和债务。
需要针对每个地区的独特特点，增加对替代生计的成功接受。一个一致的发现是，农民对烟草经济可行性的看法是决定小农户种植烟草的主要因素。需要更深入地了解是什么导致了农民对一种作物的经济可行性的看法。了解和解决这些因素可能会增加对烟草的替代生计的成功接受。此外，本研究表明，一刀切的替代生计干预措施不太可能有效，因为每个地区都有独特的特点，影响农民种植烟草的决定。
