Livelihoods up in smoke tobacco farming in Turkey

Tobacco production in Turkey declined steeply following the introduction of contract farming under a new tobacco law in 2002. Law 4733 regulating tobacco production and exchange entered the books unchanged. The Turkey formulated a ban on smoking in restaurants in 2009, leading to public outrage. The law eliminated bulk purchases by the state tobacco monopoly, TEKEL, established a tobacco regulatory board, TAPDK, and substitution of contract farming. TEKEL not only regulated the production of tobacco before the 2002 regulation, but also was a major cigarette manufacturer. TEKEL has subsequently bought tobacco as per its needs, leading to the serious decline in tobacco production as well as in the number of producers. The position of tobacco cultivators will worsen, especially in the eastern regions, if TEKEL fully stops purchasing tobacco from farmers in the logical extension of the present privatization