'Malawi's farmers need green gold'

Machinga, Malawi - Under a scorching sun, 62-year-old William Mose kept on pacing up and down to a stream to collect water for his withered tobacco nursery.

"The rains have been lazy this year, otherwise I will keep on watering the nursery until the crop is ready for planting," Mose, a water can in hand, said at his village in Malawi's southern district.

Mose has grown this impoverished southern African country's chief export, dubbed "green gold" here, for the past four years.

"I can't quit growing tobacco. Without tobacco, my family would be doomed... Malawi would also be doomed," he said.

Tending only an acre of the crop, Mose still smiled all the way to the bank this year. He sold only two bales of thin-leafed burley tobacco and netted 35 000 kwacha (US$245).

It's money rarely seen in one of Africa's poorest countries where the majority of citizens survive on less than a dollar a day.

"I am very happy this year because I have never realised this type of money in my lifetime. If I had grown more tobacco, I could have been richer and afford to buy iron sheets for my house," Mose said.

But the World Health Organisation (WHO) wants farmers like Mose - one of some 300 000 small-scale growers in Malawi - to replace tobacco farming with economically viable alternatives.

The task is immense. Tobacco growing has shifted to developing countries like Malawi where the crop fetches 70 percent of its foreign currency earnings and employs close to half-a-million people.

But the WHO argues that farmers face long-term losses from selling to a non-open market regulated by the tobacco industry and illnesses associated with growing the crop, not to mention problems of child labour and environmental degradation.

Experts researching the proposal - which falls under the WHO framework convention on tobacco control (FCTC) - acknowledge the challenges and expect resistance.

"(The farmers) are absolutely correct that they can't live without it because it is their livelihood. Not that it's the best choice but at the moment it is what they're earning a living from," said Ahmed Ogwell, a Kenyan expert on WHO's study team.

"It's a big problem and it has to be tackled slowly. You can't take it on at once," he admitted.

Malawi, which is not party to the WHO framework and therefore not able to access its support for tobacco alternatives, has in the past eyed macadamia, apples, roses, and fruits as potential crops that farmers could switch to.

Farmer Saizi Komakoma, who made 70 000 kwacha this year, said he had long heard of the government diversification plans to wean the country of its tobacco dependence but had seen few concrete steps.

"I don't see any other cash crop that can replace tobacco. Tobacco has a steady market and I will never stop growing it," he said in Liwonde, a busy trading area.

"No concrete plans have been taken. Which crop do we diversify to?" the 49-year-old asked.

Robert Salama, chief researcher at the state-funded Malawi Export Promotion Council, admits that plans to diversify the country's farm-based economy have not been successful.

"Malawi is an agricultural country... we can grow almost anything, but investment required to grow other crops such as apples, tea, fruits or roses is immense compared to tobacco."

"Tobacco does not need electricity, rose flowers need light and there is no rural electrification in Malawi," Salama said.

He said tobacco "needs only a farmer, land, seeds and fertiliser".

But Ogwell said examples in other African countries show there are financially viable alternatives through pilot projects set up in tobacco strongholds.

"I'm very confident that if it starts, it will meet with success. All that is required is political willingness to begin the process because the farmer is not a hindrance at all," he said.

"What the farmer wants is livelihood and if you can be able to give them an alternative that provides for their everyday living, they will shift. The biggest barrier is the industry." he said.

Godfrey Chapola, general manager of Malawi's state regulatory body, the Tobacco Control Commission (TCC), says the industry "faces a lot of great challenges, including price declines and the anti-smoking lobby".

"Tobacco has a future. Its a strategic crop for Malawi and the country has to adapt to the challenges."

"We will defend the industry till death do us part," he said.