Tama rues child labour in tobacco industry
Tama Farmers Trust has urged tobacco growers to desist from using child labour in the tobacco production chain, saying such malpractice has dealt a blow to the marketing of the crop.
Tama Farmers Trust president Abiel Kalima Banda, who is also the International Tobacco Growers Association president, made the remarks on Friday in Lilongwe during the commemoration of World Tobacco Growers’ Day.
He said: “We are sensitising our farmers against using child labour. Instead children should be sent to school.
“Tobacco needs to be handled by adults only and do not use children in whatever form in the tobacco production value chain.”
Banda said the Withhold Release Order (WRO) imposed by the United States government on Malawi tobacco in November 2019 was a wake-up call to do things right.
The United States Customer and Border Protection (CBP) issued a WRO on tobacco from Malawi and products containing tobacco from Malawi.
The products were being detained at all US ports of entry after the CBP issued the WRO based on information collected by the agency that indicated that tobacco from Malawi is produced using forced child labour.
Banda said as part of the commitment to do away with child labour, Tama is also educating its cooperatives to eliminate all forms of child labour in tobacco.
Salima-based Lifidzi Cooperative chairperson Nelson Kabuma said due to lack of knowledge on the evils of child labour in tobacco, some farmers have in the past ignorantly engaged children in the production of tobacco.
He said the situation is now different as tobacco growers are now becoming more aware of the evils of child labour in tobacco fields.
Mbabzi Tobacco Estate area manager David Barron said they have zero tolerance policy against child labour.
He said they built Mbabzi Primary School close to their estate to ensure that children of workers in the estate and surrounding villages are in school other than engaging in child labour.
“Child labour issues are difficult to deal with and we all need to hold hands to eliminate this problem,” he said.
In a statement, Tobacco Commission chief executive officer Joseph Chidanti Malunga urged the industry to celebrate the day by ensuring that they respect human rights in the tobacco value chains.
Tobacco Growers Day was launched in 2012 when the industry started observing it in all countries that grow the crop.
Tobacco still remains Malawi’s main foreign exchange earner, contributing about 60 percent to the country’s forex reserves and 13 percent to the gross domestic product.
