FAO - ISSUES IN THE GLOBAL TOBACCO ECONOMY (2)

FAO Document Repository: "ISSUES IN THE GLOBAL TOBACCO ECONOMY "
Tobacco is grown in two distinct areas: the northeast and the south. Approximately 135 000 family farmers in 656 municipalities in the three rich and industrialized states of the south have tobacco production as their main economic activity. In 2000/01, the harvest in the states of Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul was 504 728 tonnes of tobacco, with a gross income of $R 1.23 billion, implying an average gross income per family farm of $R 9 164.63, from average production of 3.74 tonne/ha - a record high. In the south, about half a million people work in tobacco-related activities.

The properties where tobacco is grown have an average area of 16.8 ha - a small farm by Brazilian standards - with 2.5 ha planted to tobacco, 9.4 ha under other crops, and the remainder being pasture, virgin or replanted forests, dams and fallow areas. About a quarter of the family farms growing tobacco in the south rent land or have sharecropping arrangements with landowners - contractual arrangements for renting land requiring all those farmers either to grow tobacco or to leave the farms. The small average size of farms in the south - between 1 and 10 ha - allows only limited alternatives to tobacco.