World No Tobacco Day 2023: World No Tobacco Day is here once again and this year’s theme is ‘We need food, not tobacco’. World No Tobacco Day is observed every year on 31 May to spread awareness about the harm caused by tobacco consumption.
This year’s theme aims to raise awareness of alternative crop production and marketing opportunities for tobacco farmers and encourage them to grow sustainable and nutritious crops. Dr. Poonam Khetrapal Singh, WHO Regional Director for South-East Asia, said that tobacco cultivation contributes to increasing food insecurity around the world. Globally, about 3.5 million hectares of land is converted to tobacco growing every year.
Which country is the leader in tobacco production in the South East Asia region?
In the Southeast Asia region, India leads in acres of land under cultivation and tobacco production, followed by Indonesia. Tobacco is also 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 farmers have successfully switched to economically viable alternative crops,” Singh said.
“Sri Lanka is successfully implementing pilots to promote alternative crops to tobacco, which are showing encouraging results,” Singh said.
Nine of the 10 largest tobacco producers are low- and middle-income countries, and four of these are defined as low-income food-deficient countries. Land used to grow tobacco can be used more efficiently to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 2 – zero hunger.
(with inputs from agencies)
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