Tobacco farming doubles in BD despite worry over ill effects

Campaigners made a fervent call for the tobacco industry to end its exploitation of farmers and for the government to support those who want transition away from growing tobacco, amid growing concern over its ill effects.
On the eve of the World Food Day -- October 16 -- they especially expressed worry about ill effects of aggressive expansion of the evil empire of tobacco on food security and human health.
PROGGA (knowledge for progress) joined public health and workers' rights groups globally, on the occasion of the World Food Day, in making the call on the tobacco companies and the governments to act from their respective positions for a remedy.         
The World Food Day will be globally observed today (Thursday) to mark the date (October 16) of the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 1945.
Transitioning out of tobacco will not only ensure better future for Bangladeshi farmers but also help to address food-security concerns created by tobacco farming, PROGGA said in a press release.
Recent statistics clearly indicate that tobacco-producing land and production both have doubled in four years.
According to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics the tobacco acreage was 48,867.41 hectares in 2010-11. The Department of Agriculture Extension under the Ministry of Agriculture showed a steep rise in tobacco farming over the four years thereafter -- up to 108,000 hectares as in 2014.
The lure of short-term profits from raising tobacco often causes farmers to abandon the farming of traditional staple crops that feed and nourish people, especially vulnerable segments of the population.
"World Food Day is being marked in the midst of a misinformation campaign organised by tobacco industry front groups, like the International Tobacco Growers' Association (ITGA), in an effort to undermine the efforts of the world's governments to tackle the deadly global tobacco epidemic and assist farmers to transition from tobacco farming," the PROGGA release said.
It says ITGA's main supporters are international cigarette and tobacco-leaf companies, including Alliance One International, British American Tobacco (major market shareholder of tobacco market in Bangladesh), Imperial Tobacco International, Japan Tobacco International, Philip Morris International (trying to enter aggressively to the Bangladesh tobacco market) and Universal Leaf.  
Tobacco companies fund and direct ITGA to influence policymakers and block lifesaving tobacco-control measures.
Historically, the tobacco industry has exploited farmers in Bangladesh and around the world by encouraging them to cultivate tobacco leaves and then intentionally keeping prices too low to be profitable, the advocacy organisation said.
"These low prices, as well as unfair contracts that make farmers pay inflated prices for inputs, undermine farmers' bargaining power, causing them to fall into a cycle of debt that perpetuates poverty. It is to be noted that tobacco is being cultivated in more than 20 districts of Bangladesh," the press release said.
Total agricultural labour force in 2009 was 25.8 million in which 155 thousands were tobacco farmers, it added.
Around the world, the tobacco industry has engaged in sophisticated campaigns designed to shift attention away from its role in keeping tobacco prices low and purchasing tobacco produced by child labourers.
"In Bangladesh, more than 50 per cent bidi (a handmade tobacco stick) workers are child labourer. Cigarette makers and leaf companies exaggerate the impact of proven tobacco-control policies on tobacco farmers, and misrepresent the goals of these policies, which are designed to protect public health and help address the six million deaths caused each year by tobacco use," it said.
In Bangladesh tobacco use kills more than 57,000 people each year. Those who don't die from tobacco-related disease can suffer from several debilitating diseases, including cancer, heart and lung disease.
Additionally, tobacco cultivation undermines the health and wellness of farmers, who experience illness from exposure to pesticides and nicotine.
Tobacco farmers' cumulative seasonal exposure to nicotine absorbed through the skin is equivalent to smoking at least 180 cigarettes.
"Though the tobacco industry claims to have the best interest of Bangladesh's farmers in mind, the reality is that the tobacco industry values only its own profits - often at the expense of our farmers," the press release said.
Bangladesh's tobacco farmers often live in extreme poverty, bound to the potentially deadly life of tobacco farming, without viable alternatives.
It's time for the tobacco industry to end this exploitation of farmers and for the government to support the transition of tobacco farmers to alternative and sustainable livelihoods by preparing and implementing a comprehensive guideline in the light of the Smoking and Tobacco Products Usages (control) Act 2005 (amended 2013).
This call from public health groups comes during the sixth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP6) to the World Health Organisation's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), which is meeting in Moscow, Russia, to discuss development and implementation of the Convention.
The world's only international public health treaty, the WHO FCTC, has 179 parties representing almost 90 per cent of the world's population. It obligates countries to implement proven methods to reduce tobacco use, including smoke-free public places, large pictorial warning labels on tobacco products, increased tobacco taxes and bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.
Without urgent action to curb the tobacco epidemic, including measures to protect and transition tobacco farmers, tobacco use will kill one billion people around the world this century, most of them in low-and middle-income countries.

doulot_akter@yahoo.com