ArticleTobacco control2017
Costs, revenues and profits: an economic analysis of smallholder tobacco farmer livelihoods in Malawi.
Article in Tobacco control, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 34 papers.
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Who cites it
34 citing papers in PubMed.
- The end of the garden path? Analyzing smallholder tobacco farming income and decision-making in Mozambique.Globalization and health · 2026Article
- The impacts on the economy, health, and environment resulting from tobacco cultivation: A cross-sectional survey of tobacco farmer perspectives in Thailand.Tobacco induced diseases · 2025Article
- The political economy of tobacco of Zimbabwe: An analysis of stakeholder perspectives.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- The Interplay of Tobacco Farming and Tobacco Control: Exploring Socioeconomic and Health Dynamics in Malawi.Public health challenges · 2024Article
- Assessing the Level of Poverty and Utilization of Government Social Programs Among Tobacco Farmers in Indonesia.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2024Article
- Perspectives of push-pull-mooring effects on a desire for switching to alternative crops among tobacco farmers in Thailand: A qualitative study.Tobacco induced diseases · 2024Article
- Future of farming must be food not tobacco.Tobacco control · 2023Article
- Exploring the Political Economy Nexus of Tobacco Production and Control: A Case Study from Zambia.Critical public health · 2023Article
- Research on farmers' adoption of additional technology combinations: Practice from Chongqing, China.PloS one · 2023Article
- Deteriorating Quality of Life and a Desire to Stop Growing Tobacco Among Virginia and Burley Tobacco Farmers in Thailand.JCO global oncology · 2022Article
- Tobacco farming and current debt status among smallholder farmers in Manicaland province in Zimbabwe.Tobacco control · 2021Article
- Corporate power and the international trade regime preventing progressive policy action on non-communicable diseases: a realist review.Health policy and planning · 2021Review
- Tobacco or not tobacco: predicting farming households' income in Indonesia.Tobacco control · 2021Article
- The value of studying supply chains for tobacco control.Tobacco prevention & cessation · 2021Article
- How does tobacco growing impact advancement in demand reduction measures?Tobacco prevention & cessation · 2021Article
- The Economic Cost of Tobacco Farming in Bangladesh.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- In-and-Out of Tobacco Farming: Shifting Behavior of Tobacco Farmers in Indonesia.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- Explaining Why Farmers Grow Tobacco: Evidence From Malawi, Kenya, and Zambia.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2020Article
- Shifting from tobacco growing to alternatives in Malawi? A qualitative analysis of policy and perspectives.Health policy and planning · 2020Article
- Intersectoral policy on industries that produce unhealthy commodities: governing in a new era of the global economy?BMJ global health · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundThe preservation of the economic livelihood of tobacco farmers is a common argument used to oppose tobacco control measures. However, little empirical evidence exists about these livelihoods. We seek to evaluate the economic livelihoods of individual tobacco farmers in Malawi, including how much money they earn from selling tobacco, and the costs they incur to produce the crop, including labour inputs. We also evaluate farmers' decisions to contract directly with firms that buy their crops.
methodsWe designed and implemented an economic survey of 685 tobacco farmers, including both independent and contract farmers, across the 6 main tobacco-growing districts. We augmented the survey with focus group discussions with subsets of respondents from each region to refine our inquiries.
resultsContract farmers cultivating tobacco in Malawi as their main economic livelihoods are typically operating at margins that place their households well below national poverty thresholds, while independent farmers are typically operating at a loss. Even when labour is excluded from the calculation of income less costs, farmers' gross margins place most households in the bottom income decile of the overall population. Tobacco farmers appear to contract principally as a means to obtain credit, which is consistently reported to be difficult to obtain.
conclusionsThe tobacco industry narrative that tobacco farming is a lucrative economic endeavour for smallholder farmers is demonstrably inaccurate in the context of Malawi. From the perspective of these farmers, tobacco farming is an economically challenging livelihood for most.
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