Tobacco is grown for centuries in over 125 countries, it
can be found on over 4 million hectares of land and a third part of all of
these hectares is in China
alone. The whole global tobacco crop is worth almost US $20 billion, which
represents a small fraction of the total amount that is coming from the sale of
already produced tobacco products. Tobacco is grown on less than one percent of
the world’s agricultural land, and on a very large variety of climates and
soils.
In 1960’s the bulk of production started to move to
Africa and Asia from America.
But there still remained some land in USA,
Mexico and Canada
dedicated tobacco growth. But in United Republic of Tanzania, Malawi and China the tobacco growth almost
doubled.
The production of tobacco leaves has more than doubled
since the 1960s, in total almost 7 million metric tons in 2000. A large usage
of fertilizers and pesticides and a very good mechanization have lead to damage
of the environment.
The problem is not ending
with growing tobacco: the processes used in curing tobacco leaves cause massive
deforestation. In the whole world are millions of tobacco farmers. Tobaccoindustry is very interesting. Because there is a problem between tobacco
manufactures and tobacco control programs they decided to develop a partnership
between public health community and farmers.
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