Tobacco Farming and Its Social Impacts on Farmers in the Rural Mardan, Pakistan

Despite the growing concern regarding the hazardous effects of tobacco by the international community, tobacco farming still prevails worldwide. This study was planned to explore how the rural farmers perceive the significance of tobacco farming in term of its social impacts on the farming community in district Mardan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Tobacco farming was taken as independent variables and its social impacts on the farmers were selected as the outcome variable. The social impact variable was operationalized with sub-variables as income, social status, expanding kin relationships, labor opportunity, and linkages with people of different social background. Data were collected from 144 tobacco growers through structured questionnaire and analyzed through correlation and regression models. The study concluded that tobacco farming brings about positive impacts on the social status of the farming community by increasing their income, elevates their social status, expands kin relationships, and provides labor opportunity to the farmers