Among the main myths associated with the WHO FCTC, perhaps the most widespread is the one that says that family farmers need to be protected *from* the Treaty: people and organizations linked to the tobacco industry usually claim that the Convention harms those farmers, because they depend on tobacco to make a living. 

Well, the Convention does assert the importance of lowering the supply of tobacco, and this is obviously linked to having less tobacco-growing areas. But it doesn’t mean that Parties can leave tobacco farmers unprotected. On the contrary, Article 17 of the WHO FCTC says that Parties need to promote economically viable alternatives to those people: governments need to support tobacco farmers so that they can switch to healthier and better activities.

Our guests:

Dr. Kelvin Khow – Programme Manager of the WHO FCTC Secretariat 

Dr. Léonce Sessou – Director of the African Tobacco Control Alliance (ATCA).

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Unlocking the Tobacco Supply Chain is a podcast produced by the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Knowledge Hub for Articles 17 and 18, which is based in Brazil, in the Center for Studies on Tobacco and Health from the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation.

The information and views set out on this podcast are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), the Parties to the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products (the Protocol), or the Secretariat of the WHO FCTC and its Protocols.