Anti-tobacco lobby challenges Japanese agreement

Zolani Kraai | Friday February 21, 2014 16:23

 

ATN spoke through its interim Executive Director, Bontle Mbongwe, hours after Parliament was told that Botswana could benefit from tobacco commercialisation profits flowing from use of technology to improve the farming of cereal crops.

Mbongwe was responding to the Assistant Minister of Trade and Industry Keletso Rakhudu who told Parliament (on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture) on Wednesday that the agreement between government and Nara Institute of Science and Technology granted Japan Tobacco Incorporated (JTI) exclusive rights to commercialise farming technology on cereal crops.

Under the agreement, JTI will pay royalties at 45 percent of profit to government on an annual basis while Nara Institute will share it equally with government. But the anti-tobacco lobby is not impressed. Mbongwe told Mmegi this week that JTI dealt with manufacturing and sale of tobacco products, its agreement with the Government of Botswana was a gross violation of the country’s Control of Smoking Act.

Further, Articles 5.3 and 13 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control clearly prohibit any influence of the tobacco industry on public health policy. “The guidelines of Article 5.3 unanimously adopted by countries that have ratified the FTCT, including Botswana, recommend specifically against allowing any type of so-called corporate social responsibility activities by the tobacco industry,” Mbongwe noted.

She said the agreement defeated the government’s high level government commitment to tobacco control as expressed by President Ian Khama in his State of the Nation address in December last year.

“ATN would like to echo the sentiments of the Minister of Health, John Seakgosing, that tobacco companies use special forms of sponsorship of research, charitable activities, and educational programmes, including disaster relief, to give the public the false idea that tobacco companies are socially acceptable economic contributors,” Mbongwe said.

Rakhudu was answering a question from the Member of Parliament for Kgalagadi North, Phillip Khwae, who had asked the Minister of Agriculture to brief Parliament about the agreement between the Government of Botswana on one hand, and Japan Tobacco Incorporated and the Nara Institute of Science and Technology on the other.

The agreement would see technology being used to patent a gene found in wild melons mainly in the Kgalagadi Desert in Botswana, for use to improve productivity of crops such as rice and maize. However, Rakhudu was unable to tell Parliament how the revenue from the commercialisation would benefit any particular group or community of Batswana, including Basarwa.