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RI farmers support tougher tobacco control, study says
Dangerous product: A study conducted by the Muhammadiyah Tobacco Control Center (MTCC) reveals that Indonesian tobacco farmers support the governmentâs measures to apply tougher tobacco rules
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Dangerous product: A study conducted by the Muhammadiyah Tobacco Control Center (MTCC) reveals that Indonesian tobacco farmers support the governmentâs measures to apply tougher tobacco rules.(Antara) (MTCC) reveals that Indonesian tobacco farmers support the governmentâs measures to apply tougher tobacco rules.(Antara)
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span class="inline inline-center">Dangerous product: A study conducted by the Muhammadiyah Tobacco Control Center (MTCC) reveals that Indonesian tobacco farmers support the government's measures to apply tougher tobacco rules.(Antara)
Indonesia's tobacco farmers are supporting the government's measures to create tougher tobacco rules by, among other things, ratifying the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), a study says.
The study commissioned by the Muhammadiyah Tobacco Control Center (MTCC) contradicted a long-believed argument of anti-tobacco control groups, which said tobacco farmers were worried that tougher tobacco rules would affect their livelihood.
'The rejection of the FCTC ratification was mainly based on an argumentation that it would bring suffering to tobacco farmers. The study proves that in fact, they [the farmers] support the government for the ratification. We hope it could be the basis for our lawmakers to produce fairer regulations for our farmers,' MTCC researcher Fauzi Ahmad Noor said in the launch of the survey report at the Dakwah Muhammadiyah building in Central Jakarta on Wednesday.
The study reveals that 51.8 percent of Indonesian tobacco farmers selected as respondents support the government's moves to create strong tobacco regulations. Almost all respondents (96.5 percent) believe that tobacco is addictive. Furthermore, 70.4 percent of the respondents did not want their children to smoke.
To date, Indonesia is the only country in ASEAN and Asia that has not ratified the convention. The FCTC has 184 parties, nearly 90 percent of the world's population, according to WHO data in 2014.
Fauzi said the survey could hopefully pave a way to a more comprehensive study on tobacco-related problems, such as green tobacco sickness (GTS). The researcher said that last year he conducted a study on Indonesian farmers' perceptions of the tobacco trade system.
'The 2014 study revealed that the tobacco trade system did not take sides with the farmers,' he said, adding that the MTCC would hand over its latest tobacco study to related stakeholders, including the Health Ministry and the House of Representatives to become their reference.
Fauzi said the MTCC conducted the survey in three main tobacco production provinces in Indonesia, namely Central Java, East Java and West Nusa Tenggara in June and July 2015. The provinces dominate the country's tobacco production, amounting to 118,000 tons per year in total, or around 87 percent of the national tobacco production.
The survey involved around 500 farmers, consisting of 309 tobacco farmers and 191 former tobacco farmers, in five major tobacco farming locations: Central Lombok, East Lombok, Jember, Magelang and Temanggung. They were randomly selected for the study, which used semi-structured questionnaires to obtain information through face-to-face interviews.
WHO estimates smoking kills 235,000 Indonesians annually and secondhand smoke takes another 25,000 lives. Smoking has increased among males. In 2011 67.4 percent of men were smoking, while in 1995 it was 53.4 percent. The number of female smokers has tripled, from 1.7 percent in 1995 to 4.5 percent in 2011. (ebf)
