A World Health Organization (WHO) report released today revealed that Brazil has the third largest tobacco growing area in the world and Mozambique the eighth.

According to the WHO report, on the pretext of the World No Tobacco Day, which is celebrated on May 31, with 357,230 hectares, Brazil leads in the Americas region and is, with China and India, responsible for more than 55% of the world tobacco production, continuing to maintain its production without increasing the cultivated area.

Mozambique, with a cultivated area of 91,469 hectares is third in the African region, after Zimbabwe (112,770 hectares) and Malawi (100,962).

However, the WHO urges governments ?to stop subsidizing tobacco farming and support more sustainable crops that could feed millions of people?

"Tobacco is responsible for eight million deaths a year, yet governments around the world spend millions supporting tobacco farms," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says in the report.

The organization also points out that tobacco cultivation is a ?worldwide problem? with the focus on Asia and South America, ?but the latest data show that tobacco companies are expanding into Africa?