TI Aggression to Expand Tobacco Farming

NGO News Report :: Farmers for tobacco alternatives, tobacco farming policy formulation stressed. Farmers in Bandarban district are reluctant to grow tobacco on their arable lands as they cannot make a good profit from that, entrapped by the tobacco companies that they are to continue the farming on their lands and have held human chains in the district demanding alternatives of tobacco cultivation, reads on the Daily Bhorer Kagoj on February 5, 2015 by Tutul Rahman, an ATMA member.

The report reads that family members of the tobacco growing farmers used to be sick for round the year and they do not get any loan for food crop cultivation as well. According to PROGGA, a leading private research organization in Bangladesh, there is no state policy to discourage farmers from tobacco cultivation and thus the tobacco companies are aggressively expanding their business using the marginalized farmers, following the report. PROGGA also alleged that the tobacco companies are making profit using the subsidized facilities of the government, reads the report.

Experts, at a recent Policy Dialogue, opined that tobacco Cultivation is damaging about 1 to 2 per cent of the GDP which needs immediate attention. National Parliament member, Saber Hossain Chowdhury, comprehending the disastrous impact of nationwide tobacco cultivation, has called for formulating a National Platform and the other MPs present there agreed with the proposal and promised playing important roles in the coming Parliament session, says the report.
The detail of the report is available on the following link:
https://www.bhorerkagoj.net/epaper/2015/02/05/9/details/9_r2_c2.jpg

Khagrachharhi farmlands turn tobacco prey. Khagrachharhi farmers have started preferring tobacco cultivation on their farmlands since the companies are alluring them, the government monitoring system is sluggish and mostly they are unaware of the negative impacts of tobacco farming, reads a report on the Daily Suprobhat on February 5, 2015. Precious forestlands are being burnt to bake tobacco leaves and the smoke emitted from the burning is creating serious health hazards for the local population and simultaneously the lands are losing fertility, reads the report. The detail of the report is available on the following link:
https://www.esuprobhat.com/content/2015/2015-02-05/zoom_view/2015_02_05_9a.jpg