Tobacco Industry-led Crop Diversification in Malawi Is Not Helping Farmers

(New York, USA and Lilongwe, Malawi, February 26, 2025) — Amid falling global demand for tobacco leaf, a new report from Sustainable Development Initiative (SDI) and tobacco industry watchdog, STOP, reveals that smallholder tobacco farmers in Malawi say they are not getting the support they need to transition successfully to other crops. Worryingly, some farmers report that tobacco industry-led crop diversification programs are leaving them worse off.

Key findings in the report, Sowing The Status Quo: How Crop Diversification Is Failing Tobacco Farmers in Malawi, include:

• Industry-led programs don’t work. Some diversification initiatives may not reach tobacco farmers and others may negatively impact their livelihoods. For example, a program may provide inputs for crops that do not have a reliable market compared to tobacco, or farmers may lack the technology and support to successfully cultivate them.
• Efforts keep farmers dependent. Some contract farmers say they are forced to take loans to grow crops that do not have a reliable market. They then end up earning less, becoming more indebted and more dependent on growing tobacco.
• Genuine commitment to diversification is questionable. Tobacco companies have been criticized for directly and indirectly influencing farmers to prioritize tobacco over food crops, even in countries experiencing high levels of hunger and malnutrition.
• Diversification appears to be a corporate social responsibility (CSR) effort. Even though significant funding from industry and front groups has produced few tangible results, tobacco companies promote their diversification initiatives to government, investors, stakeholders and media. This helps craft a favorable image for an industry known to sell products that draw customers into addiction and harm their health.

“Our research suggests that tobacco companies oblige farmers to grow other crops when there is no stable market for them,” commented Maynard Nyirenda, Executive Director of SDI. “This means tobacco companies get to say they are supporting diversification while farmers get less income, more work and further dependence on tobacco.”

The report highlights how diversification initiatives help craft a favorable image for transnational cigarette companies including Philip Morris International and British American Tobacco, and tobacco leaf companies like Universal Corp. and Pyxus International. According to the report, front groups like the Philip Morris International-funded Global Action to End Smoking fund upstream research, technology and policy analysis that doesn’t translate into benefits for farmers.

Jorge Alday, Director of STOP at Vital Strategies, said: “Cigarette companies win and farmers lose. What’s striking is the gap between the noise tobacco companies make about their diversification projects and the benefits they get–government endorsements, media coverage, partnerships with institutions and international organizations and content for their ESG reports—and tobacco farmers becoming worse off. It’s yet another example of tobacco industry deception and how the industry’s huge profits are deeply rooted in inequity.”

Malawi is a party to a global treaty, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, that obliges governments of tobacco-growing countries to help tobacco farmers switch to other crops. To date, diversification efforts have not sought to move Malawian farmers out of the tobacco sector.

Many of the farmers SDI spoke with in Malawi find it hard to envisage a way of leaving tobacco growing. Yet in Kenya, collaboration between government and non-governmental organizations has helped more than 2,000 farmers successfully switch to other cash crops, showing that change is possible.

Nyirenda concluded: “We do not underestimate the challenge. Transitioning from tobacco will take time and require investment to protect the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and the stability of Malawi’s economy. But the people we spoke with know that farmers can’t rely on a crop that does not give them a decent living now, and for which there will be even less demand in the future.”

The report is based on detailed interviews with 160 tobacco farmers and 14 key informants with connections to tobacco cultivation in Malawi, as well as publicly available documents and research. Quotes from farmers cited in the report include:

• “We are forced to take the inputs on loan from the [tobacco leaf-buying company]. They are supposed to give us a choice to take the loan or not, but it is mandatory, and this gets us into unwanted debts.” — Farmer from Mchinji
• “Without concrete guidance and viable options, we feel stuck in our reliance on tobacco as a primary source of income.” — Farmer from Ntchisi
• “If the government and other stakeholders find us alternative crops with [a] reliable market, then it will be well with us.” — Farmer from Lilongwe.

Please contact the STOP press office for more information or to speak to a STOP spokesperson.

Notes to Editors

Tobacco Growing in Malawi

Malawi is the fourth-poorest country in the world. Policymakers recognize the need to reduce the country’s reliance on tobacco as an export crop: tobacco represented nearly half of Malawi’s exports in 2022 and 4% of GDP. Smallholder farmers account for 95% of Malawi’s tobacco production.

As the film “Tobacco Slave” illustrates, there is a power imbalance between the farmers who rely on tobacco for their income and the wealthy transnational tobacco corporations, including leaf-buying companies, that profit from the farmers’ crops.

In 2020 law firm Leigh Day, representing over 10,000 Malawian tobacco tenant farmers, including hundreds of children, brought a legal action against British American Tobacco and Imperial Brands plc, accusing them of being complicit in the use of forced and child labor on tobacco farms in Malawi. The case continues, with the tobacco companies denying the claims.

About STOP

STOP is a network of academic and public health organizations operating globally as part of the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use. STOP connects experts in all aspects of the tobacco industry’s business to expose and counter its relentless efforts to sell harmful, addictive products. For more information, visit exposetobacco.org.

About Sustainable Development Initiative

Founded in 2006 and registered with the Government of Malawi and NGORA, the Sustainable Development Initiative (SDI) is a local non-governmental organization dedicated to addressing poverty, disasters, environmental degradation, and social injustices impacting Malawi’s most vulnerable populations. Working collaboratively with communities, SDI prioritizes the development of sustainable and enduring solutions. The organization’s core strategy incorporates rigorous research, active lobbying, and policy advocacy to promote impactful change. SDI has cultivated substantial expertise in enhancing accountability and fostering responsiveness to the diverse needs of vulnerable women, men, and children across Malawi. For more information, visit http://www.srgdi.org/.