Community-based advocacy opportunities for tobacco control: experience from Tanzania.

Tanzania is third in Africa in tobacco production after Malawi and Zimbabwe. In spite of increased production, Tanzania remains a poor country, with tobacco farmers getting poorer and the country losing more than 16,500 hectares of forests annually from tobacco curing alone. Tanzania grows fire-cured and air-cured tobacco. Regarding tobacco use, 35% of Tanzanians smoke tobacco regularly and about 32% of all cancers at Ocean Road Cancer Institute are attributed to tobacco use, with the country spending more than $30m annually to treat tobacco-related cancers. Unfortunately, knowledge on tobacco-related hazards is limited even among policy/decision makers. However, surveys indicate that more than 65% of resource-poor tobacco farmers favour alternative livelihoods when assured of sustainable markets. There is need of intensifying advocacy campaigns against tobacco, in order to improve the socio-economic status of tobacco farmers, enhance public health and sustain the environment in Tanzania.