The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Tobacco growing in Tabora Region, Tanzania, has decimated Miombo Forests to the point that the region now faced less rainfall, reduced honey production and general environmental degradation.

An average of 50,000 tonnes of tobacco are produced in Tanzania annually with Tabora Region producing 60 per cent of the total produce of the country.

Objective of my project is to assist tobacco growers in Tabora Region stop growing tobacco and instead start producing alternative crops such as sunflower, groundnuts, paprika, Moringa oleifera and cotton that thrive well there even without use of fertilizers or pesticides.

The methods of implementing this project is to involve all villages that had been cultivating tobacco and educate them on adverse effects tobacco growing is causing to their areas and what the consequences are to climate and environment as a whole.

In the implementation of change from tobacco growing to alternative crops, these growers will also have to plant indigenous trees that they had formerly cut down so as to bring back the lost forests. These trees are available from Forest Department in the Region.

Tobacco growers are willing to go for alternative crops but the stumbling block is the government which is getting about 80 million US dollars in tax revenues from tobacco exports and products.

Changing from tobacco growing to alternative crops and replanting of lost trees will help to re-green the region and stop Miombo Forests being lost.