NEW DELHI, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- An Indian farmers' association has protested against the tobacco control measures of the World Health Organization (WHO), which would harm the interests of tobacco farmers.
A rally was held on Thursday to demand the boycott of a WHO anti-tobacco conference, to be held in India from Nov. 7 to Nov. 12, according to the Federation of All India Farmer Associations (FAIFA).
The non-profit organization on its official website criticized the exclusiveness of the Seventh Conference of Parties of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).
"The FAIFA appeals to the Indian government to ensure that the voice of Indian farmers is heard and farmers are not excluded from meetings where their future is being decided on," the federation said in an online statement.
Although countries are recommended to find alternative crops to tobacco in order to protect the farmers' interests, the FAIFA argued that currently there are no viable substitutes for earnings of the tobacco farmers.
"Any move towards alternative agricultural crop in place of tobacco should involve long-term research and experimentation before viable options can be found and must be done with the involvement of tobacco farmers," the FAIFA said.
The federation also refused to accept several articles of the FCTC, such as banning all ingredients and additives in tobacco cultivation and processing, as well as the possible introduction of global tax benchmarks suggested by the WHO.
"Ad hoc decisions on tobacco control at this conference, as in previous such meetings, will affect the livelihood of millions of tobacco farmers and farm laborers involved in tobacco cultivation in the country," the FAIFA noted.
In an online statement written ahead of the conference on the FCTC, head of the Convention Secretariat Vera Silva said this time's convention would be "as open as possible" considering possible intervention of tobacco industry.
