To ensure that farmers are actually applying the fertilizers and pesticides, company inspectors visit the fields regularly. Costs of this technical assistance are added to the farmers bills. The money used to build the drying house is deducted from the farmers earnings and it can take a family as long as five years to erase the debt. At the same time, the family also owes the company for seeds, pesticides and fertilizers. In many respects, growers are indentured servants of the tobacco companies.
Farmers are liable for any damage to their tobacco that occurs in transit.
Farmers do not know the price the company paid for their crop until they receive a receipt that also includes deductions for fertilizers, pesticides, seeds, technical assistance, taxes, yield insurance, etc. It is not unusual that instead of being paid for the tobacco they have grown, farmers find themselves pushed farther into debt. In 1997, the Rio Azul farmers union in Paran analyzed the cost of growing tobacco. Poisonings and Deaths Selling pesticides and fertilizers is big business for tobacco companies. Many of the highly toxic pesticides used in tobacco production are banned in the US and Europe.