World No Tobacco Day 2023: The World No Tobacco Day is right here once more and the theme for this 12 months is ‘We need food, not tobacco’. World No Tobacco Day is widely known on May 31 yearly to boost consciousness concerning the harms of tobacco use.
This 12 months’s theme goals to boost consciousness about different crop manufacturing and advertising and marketing alternatives for tobacco farmers and encourage them to develop sustainable and nutritious crops. Tobacco cultivation contributes to elevated food insecurity worldwide, mentioned Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, WHO Regional Director for South-East Asia. Around 3.5 million hectares of land are transformed for tobacco rising annually globally.
Which nation leads in tobacco manufacturing in Southeast Asia area?
In Southeast Asia Region, India leads in acres of land beneath cultivation and tobacco manufacturing, adopted by Indonesia. Tobacco can be grown in Bangladesh, DPR Korea, Thailand, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka.
“I am happy to share that we have success stories from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka, where tobacco-growing farmers have successfully shifted over to economically viable alternative crops,” Singh mentioned.
“Sri Lanka is leading the way by successfully implementing pilots to promote alternative crops replacing tobacco growing with encouraging results,” Singh added.
Nine of the ten largest tobacco cultivators are low- and middle-income nations and 4 of those are outlined as low-income food-deficit nations. Land used to develop tobacco may very well be extra effectively used to attain United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 2 – zero starvation.
(With businesses inputs)
