While more than 300 million people around the world face acute food insecurity, tobacco continues to be grown in 124 countries, diverting land and resources away from food crops – even in places where people are starving.

Ahead of World No Tobacco Day on Wednesday 31 May, the World Health Organization (WHO) has released new findings about tobacco’s disastrous health impact on development in low and middle-income countries.

WHO’s Director for Health Promotion, Dr. Rüdiger Krech, also busts the myth of tobacco as a lucrative crop, before explaining how the UN system helps farmers embrace alternatives that are better for their health and food security. Here he is, talking to UN News’s Dominika Tomaszewska-Mortimer in Geneva.