Taseer Ali
Tobacco is a cash crops; it is cultivated on a large tract of land in the districts of Swabi, Mardan, Charsadda, Malakand, Mansehra and Buner. It’s a big source of revenue generation and so source of foreign exchange.
At the same time, tobacco cultivation and processing contribute to environmental degradation and pollution. Similarly, it affects human health both directly and indirectly in innumerable ways. Further it severely harms our only habitable planet at every stage, through deforestation, depletion of soil nutrients, use of pesticides, massive water consumption, furnace smoke and waste from cigarettes.
In order to make room for growing tobacco crop, millions of hectare areas of forests are increasingly cleared. Further, tobacco flue-curing process uses enormous amount of tree wood for heating purposes in furnace, as World Health Organization estimates that one tree each is destroyed in producing just 3000 cigarettes; thus, it leads to loss of biodiversity, soil degradation, and extreme carbon dioxide emissions into our environment.
Tobacco absorbs a significant amount of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium from the soil, which results in reduction of soil fertility and increases soil erosion. To maintain tobacco yields, more and more synthetic fertilizers is used leading to soil degradation and lowering lands agricultural productivity.
Tobacco requires heavy application of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and growth regulators. Runoff from tobacco fields carries fertilizers and pesticides into water bodies like rivers, and groundwater; thus contaminating soil and water, which negatively affects aquatic ecosystems and contaminates drinking water supplies. This harms wildlife and beneficial insects.
Tobacco growing is highly water intensive, draining local aquifers, depleting water resources in arid regions.
Tobacco curing and processing releases smoke, particulate matter, and greenhouse gases into atmosphere. Burning wood for flue curing tobacco leads to air pollution and carbon emissions. Tobacco production, manufacturing, transportation, and disposal all generate greenhouse gases that contributes to climate change.
Then, cigarette waste is a potential problem; as after tobacco products are consumed, cigarette butts become a major source of litter. Cigarette filters contain plastic fibers and toxic chemicals that pollute land and water.
Lastly, tobacco growers and tobacco curing labor force who work too hard for about 10 months round year suffer in health, both physically and mentally, without a sure compensation and health security thereof. Similarly, during flue-curing of tobacco in furnace, sometimes furnace of growers catches fire, whereupon furnace as well as tobacco therein is burnt; it causes huge losses to growers. Most often natural calamities like hailing and storm destroy tobacco crop; it brings farmers huge loses; this necessitates crop insurance to tobacco growers as a necessary step to be taken.
In short, Tobacco is a big source of revenue generation in shape of income tax, FBR’s taxes, tax on filters and papers, and sales tax on cigarettes packets after preparation, thus a big source of revenue to Pakistan. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa should levy tobacco cess on tobacco to be spent in compensation to tobacco growers during natural calamities like hailing and storm and catastrophes like tobacco furnace burning or accidents and for development and betterment of labor force involved in cultivation and processing of tobacco.
Due to hard work involved at every stage of this process of preparation, health of working growers suffers. Introducing sustainable tobacco practices is a must to reduce negative impacts of tobacco on work-labor as well as environment in the region. The federal government should pay shadow prices for amelioration of situation in the area.
Furthermore, the tobacco growers are given no share in profit from tobacco crop; there is no prescribed rules for fixing share of tobacco growers in profit from tobacco revenue; rather just a percentage (5—10 per cent) is arbitrarily fixed for them. It is a must that the growers should have a say in fixation of profit from tobacco during yearly Minimum Indicative Prices fixation. It should be fixed in consultation with tobacco growers, keeping in view inflation rate.
This grim scenario affects tobacco growers badly and impacts tobacco producing region in long run as well.
