Willingness to Stop Growing Tobacco in Uganda

PURPOSE Tobacco use is the leading cause of premature death worldwide. One aspect of tobacco control is convincing farmers to stop tobacco production. We assessed the willingness of tobacco farmers in Uganda to stop growing tobacco. METHODS We conducted a cross-sectional interview survey with an interviewer-administered questionnaire. Participants were active tobacco farmers in 12 villages of Kanungu district (N = 528) and were interviewed in 2013 to assess their willingness to stop growing tobacco. RESULTS Most farmers (61.7%) grew tobacco only as a cash crop with no supplemental income. A total of 198 farmers (37.5%) were willing to stop growing tobacco. Ninety-two respondents cited coffee as a potential replacement crop for tobacco and 106 mentioned rice. Barriers to growing replacement crops were that tobacco is highly profitable (n = 172) and that the soil (n = 175) and/or weather (n = 22) cannot sustain any crops other than tobacco. Willingness to stop growing tobacco was 1.32 times as likely among farmers who said that tobacco use causes respiratory diseases and 1.16 times as likely among farmers who received less than less than $300 USD from tobacco sales in the previous season. Agreeing that tobacco is profitable decreased the likelihood of willingness to stop growing tobacco by 36%. CONCLUSION Only one in three farmers were willing to stop growing tobacco. To increase their willingness to stop growing tobacco, farmers must be educated on the health consequences of tobacco and we must demonstrate to farmers that other crops may be more profitable than tobacco.