A parliamentary panel has recommended that tobacco consumption should
be reduced gradually and efforts should be made to use it as a
pesticide and other things. The panel noted that tobacco curing and
cultivation are destroying forests and contributing to the greenhouse
effect.
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A parliamentary standing committee headed by MP Renuka Chaudhury had tabled a report on May 10. Stating that the financial benefits accruing due to tobacco
cultivation were negligible as compared to losses suffered in terms of
deaths and the huge expenditure on treatment of tobacco-related
problems, the committee recommended that the cultivation of tobacco
needed to be discouraged.
It also recommended providing incentives to farmers for shifting to
other crops and disincentivising the production of tobacco gradually,
but definitely.
Effective awareness campaigns were needed to discourage the
consumption of tobacco in any form, the report read. It added that
better coordinated efforts were required by the ministries of health,
agriculture, finance, commerce and industry, human resources
development, information and broadcasting and environment to tackle the
problem.
The panel recommended that the environment ministry, in coordination
with other government agencies, should take necessary measures and
devise ways to minimise fuel consumption by regulating the area under
flue-cured Virginia tobacco cultivation using innovative and
fuel-efficient designs, thereby reducing the impact of tobacco curing on
the environment.
“The committee recommends that an Environmental Impact Assessment of
cultivation of tobacco needs to be undertaken by the concerned agencies
of Government of India in order to know its harmful effects on
environment. The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change
should find out the estimated felling of trees for curing of tobacco and
its effect on forests,” the report read.
The panel said that the effect of chemical pesticides in tobacco
cultivation and its effect on crops grown in and around tobacco fields
needed to be reviewed.
It further recommended that tobacco farmers needed to be educated
about the effect of chemical fertilisers and pesticides on the soil
quality. They should be encouraged to use organic manures/fertilizers,
the report added.
It said that the environment ministry should put in place an
institutional mechanism in coordination with other concerned ministries
to alleviate soil and environmental degradation caused by tobacco
cultivation.
source:downtoearth.org.in
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