Farmer Salome Wanjiru has seen her income grow after making the decision to switch from traditional tobacco cultivation to cash crops.

Originally from central Kenya and now living in the west of the country, Wanjiru, 73, is among several thousand farmers receiving government aid under a new agricultural scheme. She grows several cash crops that provide a tidy income for herself and her extended family.

 A co-farmer taking part in the program said he is now making more than $450 per acre of maize, the equivalent of 14 bags of the crop, which is 10 times more than he earned from tobacco cultivation.

Government assistance

The program was launched by the Kenyan Government in 2007 due to the high number of deaths and high health costs associated with tobacco consumption. This year, the government is two thirds through the process of eliminating tobacco farming and replacing it with food crops, the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation confirmed.

Shanaz Shariff, Director of Public Health in the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation, said the program is to be completed by 2016.

This program is also in line with the Tobacco Control Act signed by former Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki in 2007. The act encourages people to abandon tobacco consumption. The move has caused unease among tobacco companies based in the country, despite the fact that it is still legal to smoke and cultivate tobacco.

Secondhand smoke kills over 12,000 Kenyans every year, according to statistics from the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation. Another 19,000 die directly from the use of tobacco products.

William Maina, head of non-communicable diseases in the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation, said that the government only generates $300 million annually in revenue from the sale of tobacco. He added that the amount the government spends on treating tobacco-related complications is close to $1 billion per year.

"Tobacco use further contributes to 35 percent of cancer deaths in Kenya," said Maina.

Economists say that the government move is positive as it comes at a time when the country is battling drought and is encouraging new food production techniques to fight poverty and hunger.

The government  has been providing loans through its agricultural agencies to farmers purchasing seedlings for new cash crops and also rehabilitating the soil damaged by tobacco crops.

The country's economy is expected to grow by more than 6 percent this year, according to the World Bank, with agriculture acting as a major contributor to the growth of the economy.

Community farms that grew tobacco in some parts of the country such as in Embu have switched to cultivating coffee. Other cash crops new to different parts of the country include bananas, oranges, mangoes, cotton, maize, sugarcane, millet, cashew nuts, cassava, mushrooms and horticulture, which alone brought more than $1.6 billion to the Kenyan economy.

Drop in tobacco crops

Formerly, over 700,000 acres of land were used for tobacco cultivation in Kenya and so far, about half of that has been eliminated. The country is also a member of various international anti-tobacco initiatives.

Wilson Songa, Kenya's Secretary of Agriculture, is optimistic that the elimination process will succeed, but admits there are difficulties.

"The process can work; imagine eliminating half of the tobacco crop grown in the country so far," he said. "That is a sign of optimism." Despite the long-term benefits of transitioning away from tobacco farming, some farmers and members of the Kenya Tobacco Association are against the scheme.

(Reporting from Kenya)