Home ›› 11 Mar 2022 ›› Nation
The alarming rise in tobacco cultivation is posing a severe threat to public health and the environment in Cox’s Bazar, so much so that the level of dissolved oxygen (DO) in the district’s natural water bodies has decreased to only 5 per cent.
If the DO level drops to 3 per cent, the aquatic animals in these rivers will not survive, said Deputy Director of the Department of Environment (DoE) Sheikh Nazmul Huda.
Farmers were cultivating tobacco on a 50-kilometre stretch along the four riversides in the district – Bakkhali, Matamuhuri, Garjai and Duchhari – last year, but it has been increased to 70 kilometres owing to its lucrative profit.
Although tobacco cultivation is strictly discouraged by the District Administration and the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) officials, a few tobacco companies are doing a brisk business, violating the rules. Besides, they motivate the farmers openly by offering incentives in cash and kind to cultivate tobacco, locals claimed.
Addressing the issues, Deputy Commissioner of the district, Md Mamunur Rashid, told The Business Post that the rise in tobacco cultivation in the district is alarming, and “we must put an end to it to prevent any environmental hazard.”
The production target set by the DAE is 4,65,021 metric tonnes this fiscal year from its agricultural lands. However, farmers’ inclination towards tobacco cultivation has resulted in a decrease in agricultural production that led to only 2,37,431 metric tonnes of production in the last eight months. There are only four months left, and there is a high possibility that the production target would not be met by this time.
According to the DAE, tobacco cultivation leaves a harmful impact on soil fertility, and once tobacco is cultivated, it is difficult to grow other crops on the same land. However, farmers have been losing their interest in cultivating indigenous crops like paddy, banana, maise, sesame, cotton, potato, pumpkin etc., as they became defaulters of loans provided by tobacco companies.
“Farmers are cultivating tobacco on more than 2,094 hectares of land in the Chakaria and Ramu upazilas, which is alarming,” said Ashish Kumar, assistant agriculture officer of Cox’s Bazar DAE, adding that if this practice continues, Cox’s Bazar would be soon facing a scarcity of agricultural land. He further mentioned that they have no data on the char land and forest land that is being used for poisonous tobacco cultivation.
During a recent visit to the area, farmers were seen cultivating tobacco on the char lands across Rajarkul, Fatekhankarkul, Mithachhari, Garjania areas beside the Bakkhali and Kacchapia rivers, threatening the natural ecological balance of these rivers and lands.
Farmers and labourers said staff of tobacco companies, such as British American Tobacco Bangladesh (BATB), Abul Khair Group, and Japan Tobacco International (JTI), offer a lucrative amount of money as loans to trap them. Sometimes the companies provide them with bank loans for agriculture along with tobacco seeds, fertiliser, polythene bags and high-powered pesticides like Diaconal, fertilisers of BSP, BAP, FMC and SOB and DDT powder.
The BATB sources said farmers receive bank loans as per the rules of the Bangladesh Bank, and each farmer gets Tk 10,000 for an acre of cultivable land. Addressing the issue, the Regional Head of BATB, Rafikul Islam, said tobacco is not a banned item but a cash crop. He added that the government is earning a huge amount of revenue from it.
The farmers are willingly inclining towards tobacco cultivation for its high returns, adding that tobacco cultivation does not negatively impact the environment.
Sections 5 and 11 of the Smoking and Using of Tobacco Products (Control) Act, 2005, clearly state the patronage of tobacco products is frowned upon, but the government is yet to entirely prohibit the companies from producing tobacco, said Rameez Ahmed, chief advisor of Cox’s Bazar Youth Environmental Society (YES).
