The World Health Organisation (WHO) has admonished the Zambian government to encourage farmers to plant more food crops instead of concentrating on tobacco farming amid looming food insecurity in the country.

The WHO, which gave the advice to the Zambian government in a report on Monday titled, “Grow food, not tobacco,” highlighted “the ills of tobacco growing and the benefits of switching to more sustainable food crops for farmers, communities, economies, the environment, and the world at large.”

The WHO in conjunction with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) is currently supporting the “Tobacco Free Farms Initiative” aimed at providing help to more than 5000 farmers in Kenya and Zambia to grow sustainable food crops instead of tobacco.

The UN agency also exposed the tobacco industry for trapping farmers in a vicious cycle of debt, propagating tobacco growing by exaggerating its economic benefits and lobbying through farming front groups.

The lrector-General of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who endorsed the report, said “Tobacco farming causes diseases to the farmers themselves and more than one million child laborers are estimated to be working on tobacco farms, missing their opportunity for an education.”

Ghebreyesus noted that though tobacco was responsible for eight million deaths a year, yet governments across the world spent millions supporting tobacco farms.

“Choosing to grow food instead of tobacco, governments will prioritize health, preserve ecosystems, and strengthen food security for all,” Ghebreyesus said.

“More than 300 million people globally are faced with acute food insecurity with more than 3 million hectares of land across more than 120 countries are being used to grow deadly tobacco, even in countries where people are starving,” he added.

Speaking in like terms, WHO Director of Health Promotion, Ruediger Krech, said “Tobacco is not only a massive threat to food insecurity, but health overall, including the health of tobacco farmers.”

“Farmers are exposed to chemical pesticides, tobacco smoke and as much nicotine as found in 50 cigarettes – leading to illnesses like chronic lung conditions and nicotine poisoning,” Krech said.

The Ugandan anti-gay bill which was presented by the parliament to President Yoweri Museveni for assent has finally been signed into law, making it illegal to practice homosexuality in the country.

Part of the new legislation which was signed by President Museveni prescribes the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality,” which is defined as “cases of sexual relations involving people infected with HIV as well as with minors and other categories of vulnerable people.”

The bill had drawn a lot of condemnation from human rights activists and the international community who all called on Museveni not to give his assent to it with the belief that gay people in the country would be exposed to undue violence and intimidation.

The version of the bill signed by President Museveni doesn’t really criminalize those who identify as LGBTQ, which was a key concern for campaigners who condemned an earlier draft of the legislation as an egregious attack on human rights, but activists believe gay people are still at risk.

Another aspect of the legislation states that a suspect convicted of “attempted aggravated homosexuality” can be imprisoned for up to 14 years.

Parliamentary Speaker, Anita Among, who welcomed the signing of the bill, said in a statement that the president had answered the cries of the people in signing the bill.

“With a lot of humility, I thank my colleagues the Members of Parliament for withstanding all the pressure from bullies and doomsday conspiracy theorists in the interest of our country,” Among said.

Homosexuality was already illegal in Uganda under a colonial-era law criminalizing sexual activity “against the order of nature” with the punishment being life imprisonment.