Cancer is the sixth major cause of mortality in Bangladesh and prevalence of its different forms is rapidly increasing. Tobacco is one of the major factors of getting cancer of various forms. For ages, tobacco has been cultivated in Bangladesh. Unfortunately, its production has risen tremendously since 1980 and bidi production has grown even faster. Though the crop used to be grown in different parts of the country, it has now become concentrated in Rangpur and Kushtia districts and some part of Hill Tracts. This highly labour-and input-intensive crop is a health hazard as well as a cause for environmental disaster. Its toll on human health can be judged from the fact that even a mosquito cannot survive the smell of nicotine that emanates from a tobacco field!
On the global scale, Bangladesh ranks the 21st in tobacco cultivation, with the largest producer being China, followed by the US and India. With a total production of more than 38,000 metric tons of leaf, Bangladesh accounts for about 0.4 per cent of the total volume of tobacco produced in the world. Tobacco contributes less than 0.0 1 per cent to the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of Bangladesh.
In terms of employment, tobacco accounts for about 0.6 per cent of the agricultural labour force and less than 0.5 per cent of the total labour force. Thus, tobacco does not seem to occupy an important position in the macro economy of Bangladesh.
Over the past two decades from the early 1980s to the late 1990s, Bangladesh witnessed negative growth in tobacco acreage and production. However, in the 1990s, the decline in acreage has not seen a commensurate decline in production, most ostensibly because of an increase in the yield rate.
At the regional level, particularly in the two tobacco-dominant districts of Rangpur and Kushtia, the scenario appears somewhat mixed. The 1980s saw a considerable increase in tobacco acreage in Rangpur while in Kushtia there was a drastic decline. The situation reversed in the 1990s with tobacco acreage declining in Rangpur and increasing at a phenomenal rate of 5 per cent in Kushtia. From a declining growth in yield in the 1980s, Kushtia registered a tremendous increase in yield in the 1990s. In Rangpur, however, yield rates remained negative in both the decades. The prime reason behind these occurrences has been the active operation of a number of tobacco companies in Kushtia, including the largest one in the country, namely the British American Tobacco Bangladesh (BATB). The BATB has gradually reduced its operations in Rangpur. From the above discussion, it emerges that at the regional level, tobacco farming in Rangpur has reached a saturation point and is now declining. However, in Kushtia, the crop is gaining increasing importance. At the aggregate level, a sustained decline has been lacking with some years witnessing increases while others showing declines.
A study conducted by the Research and Evolution Department of the BRAC in 2002 reported that many of the farmers were not even aware of the consequences of tobacco farming on their health. Right from the time the seed is sown till the output is ready for disposal, it is a tale of continuous health hazard on the farmers and others working on the crop. In fact, it has been documented that the seriously damaging health and environmental impacts caused by tobacco farming are parallel to those caused each time a cigarette is taken out of a packet and lit.
However, there is a major weakness concerning tobacco cultivation laws. The previous law offered the possibility of loans on easy terms for farmers willing to switch to alternative crops. But the government didn't implement this within the time period mentioned. When the time limit was reached in 2010, no such loans had been given to farmers. The new tobacco control law is even weaker and doesn't show a constructive direction for tobacco cultivation regulation. It shows at Section 11:
"The government can enact regulations for motivation to gradually discourage production of tobacco products and its usage, and establishment of tobacco industry, as well as discouraging production of tobacco and its farming."
However, our hope is that the 'Smoking & Tobacco Products Uses (Control) (Amendment) Act 2013' may create more restriction and more awareness on tobacco products, which will intimately help to reduce tobacco consumption and consequently curb its farming.
The writer is the Associate Coordinator,Eminence.
fuad@eminence-bd.org
Cancer and tobacco farming
Mehedi Hasan Fuad | Published: September 18, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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