Tobacco farming: Key driver of climate change

Seeing the places, one grew up and where their life was shaped is always a unique experience. One thing was evident as we approached Rushinga district in Mashonaland Central province, in the north eastern part of the country.
I WENT home in September last year to attend family events. Whenever there are significant family gatherings or meetings, I often take time in September to join the family. This time around I also took the opportunity to take the children and show them their ancestral roots.

Seeing the places, one grew up and where their life was shaped is always a unique experience. One thing was evident as we approached Rushinga district in Mashonaland Central province, in the north eastern part of the country.

The forests were no longer there. Areas that were once covered in trees, including a few significant landmarks, have disappeared. Because of this, telling the children the tales of my early years spent walking countless kilometres to complete my secondary education felt weird and challenging. Many of the stories could only be told by referring to certain specific natural features, such as mountains, rivers, trees and other natural features.

In other cases, all I could say was that there used to be a tree at that corner, and we would stop there on our way home for a break. Where I completed part of my primary education, in Musvaire village, the circumstances were the same. I did, however, manage to run into a few old friends there, and I inquired about the fate of the forests. The response was quite straightforward: Tobacco farming. The primary cash crop when I left the village was cotton. Village communities back then were environmentally conscious and excelled at growing cotton and maize.

“Tobacco is the golden leaf. It brings more cash than cotton,” said one of my old friends. If they can sacrifice the forests that used to be among the main sources of livelihoods for the villagers, then surely it must be bringing more money.

“So, you have traded our forests for tobacco farming and cash?” I inquired. “Money speaks. Money is power. Money is everything,” my friend responded. Considering the economic difficulties the country has faced in the last two decades, I could understand his point of view.

However, that did not lessen the sorrow of seeing trees that had previously offered other benefits such as energy, wood, fruits, entertainment, cover, water retention and a barrier against soil erosion, all disappear. I could not even begin to imagine where the villagers would get wood to cure their tobacco in the next five years because the land was completely bare.

Firewood is necessary for the curing process, which prepares harvested tobacco leaves for sale. In rural Zimbabwe, tobacco is hung in barns and cured by hardwood fires maintained on low smoulder continuously or occasionally for extended periods to meet market standards. Almost all of the families in the village had barns, a sign that, indeed, tobacco farming was now the main industry in the village.

Although I am aware that survival is the top priority here on earth, I believe environmental preservation is just as crucial to human survival. After that visit, my view on the tobacco ban movement changed. An increasing number of people are calling for governments and individuals to outlaw the use, production and cultivation of tobacco products. Tobacco’s cultivation, production, distribution, consumption and post-consumer waste all contribute to the environmental destruction that kills almost 10 million people annually and seriously affects human health.

At a young age, I had thought that the health risks associated with smoking were down to individual choices simply because smoking, if properly regulated and controlled, only harms the smoker, and hence does not warrant the million-dollar investment into global campaigns. I was wrong on several fronts. The harmful impact of tobacco on the environment is vast and growing and is adding unnecessary pressure to already and continuously depleting scarce natural resources and fragile ecosystems.

In addition, tobacco growing, manufacturing and use is contaminating water, soil, beaches and city streets with chemicals, toxic waste, cigarette butts, including microplastics and e-cigarette waste. Studies estimate that more than 600 million trees are chopped down to cure and produce cigarettes every year. And in the process, more than 84 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions are released into the air, raising global temperatures. In a world where water is rapidly becoming scarce, more than 22 billion litres of it are used to grow and make cigarettes.

In short, tobacco is causing more harm to human lives, the environment and livelihoods than the short-term cash gains as indicated by my old friend back home. High cash yields are used to mask the fact that tobacco farming, production, consumption and use are detrimental to both the environment as well as the health of farmers and tobacco users. With an annual greenhouse gas contribution of 84 megatons of carbon dioxide equivalent, the tobacco industry contributes to climate change and reduces climate resilience, wasting resources and damaging ecosystems. Deforestation is one of the drivers of environmental degradation and climate change and yet it is seen by some as a livelihood.

Tapiwa Gomo is a development consultant based in Pretoria, South Africa. He writes here in his personal capacity.-newsday