The tobacco farming might be squeezed within next few years in Jhenidah as its farming is reducing gradually in the district considering the health issues and fertility of soil.
Discouraging the farmers from farming the hazard tobacco and building up awareness among the farmers are mainly reason to reduce the tobacco cultivation, said the officials of the department of agriculture extension (DAE) in Jhenidah.
However, many social organisations including the students of schools and colleges have been motivating the farmers to leave the tobacco farming in fronting the health issues.
A number of farmers and day labourers at Gopalnagar Bhaturia village in Harinakundu upazila in Jhenidah said they brought three bighas of land under the tobacco farming this season that was five bighas in last season. They are expecting Tk 65 to 70 thousand from each bighas of land which was better than rice, wheat, jute or any other crop. But they have been reducing the area of tobacco farming considering the health issues. Some of the farmers were affected from asthma and some other affected with chest diseases due to tobacco farming, the farmers said. They said some of the farmers could not leave the tobacco farming as the British American Tobacco in Bangladesh (BATB) men have been instigating the farmers showing the benefits in price of the tobacco leafs.
Office sources of the Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture (DAE) in Jhenidah said the farmers brought 324 hectares of land in Jhenidah Sadar, Kaliganj, Kotchandpur, Moheshpur, Shailkupa and Harinakundu in the current season to produce 1.010 tones of tobacco leaves in the season. They brought 421 hectares in the last season that produced 2,408 tones of leaves. Jhenidah DAE Deputy Director Kripangshu Sekhar Biswas said, the tobacco causes various diseases and complications for human being and affects the soil and degrading its quality, they had stopped providing any support for tobacco farmers. Even no fertilizer has been allocated for the same purpose to discourage the cultivation.
The present trend of tobacco farming reducing records showing that the farmers in the district will completely stop the farming within next 10 years, deputy director expressed his hope.
