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| Business |
| Tama warns farmers on child labour |
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by
Patrick Msowoya, 03 September 2003
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17:45:59
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Tobacco Association of Malawi (Tama) president Albert Kamulaga has warned farmers against using young children in growing and processing tobacco, saying the country risks being banned from selling the crop on the international market.
Kamulaga told farmers at Ekwendeni on Tuesday that the law is very clear and that any person below the age of 14 is not supposed to work in tobacco farms.
“I admitted when I was asked about the issue of child labour during a meeting I attended in Kenya but I told the gathering that the situation is so because of poverty. Most people in the country cannot afford to pay for labour, hence they use their children,” said Kamulaga.
Kamulaga said Malawi was about to be banned from selling tobacco abroad because some people posing as tourists had captured massive cases of child labour around Nkhotakota on video which they showed to human rights activists abroad.
“Please, do not employ these children. Instead let them go to school so that they can have a bright future. If we are not careful, the whole tobacco industry will collapse because we have numerous organisations dealing with issues of child labour. Right now, Elimination of Child Labour in Tobacco has already constructed schools in Nkhotakota and Dowa to curb the situation,” said Kamulaga.
During the meeting, Tama gave prizes to farmers who have won the regional competition in which the winner, Pwela Munthali, was given eight bags of fertilizer.
He was the first farmer to produce the highest volume of tobacco with an average weight of 3, 887 kilograms, which was sold at an average price of US$2.02 per kilogramme.
Kamulaga is on a country-wide tour to encourage farmers grow more tobacco next season, saying buyers have promised to raise the price by about 15 percent.
He said Tama has noticed that high fertiliser prices and poor leaf prices have greatly discouraged farmers to grow more tobacco. |
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