Lucrative facilities offered by tobacco product manufacturers are pushing farmers across the country towards cultivating tobacco instead of winter crops, making the government’s initiative to cut the tobacco farming futile.
A rough estimation by the field offices of the Department of Agriculture Extension shows that the tobacco yield this season will be more than that in previous years, even though the government wants to reduce the volume gradually as it hampers the production of cereal crops such as Boro paddy and maize.
“Our field report says this year the tobacco harvest will be nearly double in Lalmonirhat, which will naturally reduce the acreage of Boro and maize,” said Safayet Hossain, deputy director of the DAE in Lalmonirhat district.
According to DAE statistics, the acreage of Boro paddy in the past three seasons were 4.81 million hectares, 4.76 million hectares and around 4.7 million hectares, respectively, which clearly indicates the decreasing trend of Boro land.
“Last year, we recorded tobacco acreage of around 9,308 hectares in five upazilas of Lalmonirhat, which is nearly half of the actual acreage,” he added.
The tobacco companies are providing all sorts of agricultural supplies, such as fertilisers, seeds, pesticides and cash, in advance to the farmers to farming easy for them, on condition of growing tobacco in their land, several farmers told the Dhaka Tribune.
In addition, the companies offer to buy their production in advance at high rates.
Sohrab Hossain, a farmer from Mirpur area in Kushtia district, said: “I have been working with the company since last year as I made good profit. By working with the tobacco company, I do not have to invest anything other than labour.”
Ashraf Molla, a farmer in Bandarban’s Ali Kodom upazila who has been cultivating tobacco in his eight bigha of land for the past four seasons, said: “We have been instructed to reduce the number and acreage of tobacco farms, but such aggressive marketing policy by tobacco companies is making our plan to cut down tobacco farming go in vain,” Safayet, the DAE deputy director, told the Dhaka Tribune.
As per the field-level statistics of the DAE, in the 2013-14 season tobacco acreage was over 100,000 hectares, while in 2012-13 it was around 70,000 hectares.
Of them, about 40,000 hectares were in Kushtia, about 28,000 hectares in Bandarban, and in the comparatively new areas like Lalmonirhat and Nilphamari districts, the acreage was 30,000 and 10,000 hectares, respectively.
According to the government statistics, around 60,000 people die and 400,000 suffer from disabilities every year in Bangladesh due to the usage of tobacco goods. Growing tobacco also reduces the possibility of growing other crops in the same land.
“Our field offices have been organising different programmes, including building awareness among farmers on the negative impacts of tobacco farming, to cut down the cultivation, but we are failing to make them understand because of the tobacco companies,” said Md Musleh Uddin Faruque, deputy director (tobacco) at the DAE.
However, the British American Tobacco Company’s regional manager in Bandarban, Hafizur Rahman, said they are not doing anything illegal.
“We are merely helping the interested farmers to ensure their best production by giving suggestions, as we have to buy good-quality raw tobacco from the local market to run our business,” he said.
The anti-tobacco campaigns claimed that the government’s weak attempt at keeping farmers’ interest away from tobacco farming, including ensuring fare pricing of other crops, was a major reason behind the rise of tobacco cultivation.
Farida Akhter, executive director of Policy Research for Development Alternatives, a Dhaka-based NGO, said: “The rising trend of tobacco cultivation is a result of government’s poor initiative to ensure fare pricing and marketing of other crops, thus leading to soil infertility, scarcity of food and deteriorating crop diversity in the country.”
“A large number of farmers have been engaged in tobacco farming to earn more money from their production. They are sure of getting a reasonable price for their yield and getting the farming materials in advance from the tobacco companies, which the government does not provide for other crops,” she said.
