Kenyan Tobacco Farmers Move to Healthier Crop Options

A trailblazing sustainable agriculture project has helped hundreds of farmers move away from the harmful practice of growing tobacco, in favour of a healthier alternative, the UN has said.

The initiative, supported by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO), in cooperation with the Kenyan authorities, is helping to "move the needle" on ending the global tobacco epidemic, according to WHO.

Kenya is the first country to participate in the scheme, which offers training to tobacco farmers so that they can switch to alternative crops that are easier to harvest, such as beans.

So far, growers have sold 135 tonnes of beans to the World Food Programme (WFP), delivering them significantly more income, than they earned from tobacco farming.

Growing beans has the added advantage that they are full of iron, which helps to counter numerous heath and development problems among children and pregnant women.

More than 6,000 Kenyans die of tobacco-related diseases every year; 79 men and 37 women die per week.

An estimated 220,000 children and 2.7 million adults use tobacco each day in the country. It kills more than eight million people around the world every year, and 1.2 million of these deaths are attributed to second-hand smoke exposure, reports UN News.