About 28% of the farmers interviewed in Kenya were aware that tobacco farming has led to environmental degradation and deforestation. But the majority of them were not aware of any research on the negative effects of tobacco and why they should switch to alternative livelihoods.
The farmers were interviewed by the Ministry of Health during a stakeholder mapping exercise to inform the Alternative Livelihood Strategy.
In Kenya, tobacco is mostly grown in the Western and Eastern regions of Kenya. These include the Busia, Bungoma, South Nyanza, Migori, Homabay, Meru, Embu and Kirinyaga counties. Most of the farmers register yields of 1000 kgs per acre but a few manage to get 1200 kgs/acre. The average buying price of tobacco is Kshs100/kg.
Tobacco is mainly grown during short rains between September and November. Their main buyer is British American Tobacco in Kenya. Commercial tobacco production has been there since 1976, when BAT set up leaf buying centre and training centre for leaf technicians.
The focus group discussions also provided some detail on the type of support that the tobacco farmers receive.
It established that tobacco farmers get financial support in terms of input credit for seed, pesticides, fertilizer & spray pump) to a tune of Kshs30,000 per acre. They are trained on safe use of chemicals & are provided with protective clothing. The farmer meets the cost of curing wood & labour. The crop takes 6 months to be harvested. BAT buys and pays them based on grades. Though no one has ever achieved the highest; grade because the grading system is complex for them to comprehend.
The payment is done promptly after deducting the loan advanced to them in bulk. BAT also provides 300 tree seedlings per season in form of loan at Kshs 9/ seedling. Despite all the challenges associated with tobacco farming like hailstones, long distance to collection centres, excessive use of some pesticides without protective clothing, market challenge for non-contracted farmers, air pollution during curing & low prices. Still farmers anticipated challenges for switching to alternative livelihood as follows:
- Unreliable market
- Disease prevalence in poultry, due to inadequate knowledge.
- Inadequate startup capital
- Some enterprises like sugarcane might take long period to pay back as compared to tobacco,
Despite being aware that there are government interventions like trainings on ground nuts, indigenous chicken, grafted mango & citrus promotion, improved avocadoes and the trainings on finger millet promotion. They further proposed the following interventions by the government to make alternative livelihoods attractive:
- Stabilize prices for other produce like maize.
- Enhance restrictions on cross border trade to protect Kenyan farmers.
- Provide livestock breeds that are adaptable to the area(cross breeds)
- Provide credit in the model of BAT.
- Provide capital for investment.
- Revive dormant processing plants like Jiros cotton ginnery & rice mill.
- Promote market linkages & train on marketing.
- Upscale number of farmers involved in indigenous vegetable seed production.
- Revive grain storage facility at Angurai
- Establish collection centres and cooperatives
- Strengthen all alternative value chains like maize, cotton