The tax on cigarettes is increasing every year in the budget. However, smoking is not decreasing as expected, but cigarette sales are increasing alarmingly and aggressive cultivation of tobacco is also increasing. Tobacco is a harmful substance that not only harms the human body, but also seriously harms the environment. Bangladesh is already in a vulnerable position due to climate change and it is one of the top 10 tobacco consuming countries in the world. It is widely accepted that tobacco is a major obstacle to public health and environmental protection and overall development. This is why the environment and public health are seriously affected at every stage of tobacco cultivation, processing and consumption.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around one and a half billion hectares of forest have been lost in tropical regions worldwide since the 1970s due to tobacco, which has been identified as a cause of a 20 percent annual increase in greenhouse gases. Globally, about 3.50 million hectares of land are destroyed annually by tobacco cultivation, which accounts for five percent of the global deforestation. About 90 percent of tobacco production is in the developing countries of the world. In 2009, tobacco consumption in Bangladesh was 43.3 percent.
According to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey 2017, 37.8 million people and 35.3 percent of people over 15 years of age in Bangladesh, consume tobacco products. According to the WHO 2022 report titled 'Tobacco: Threat to Our Environment', about 15 million adults in Bangladesh smoke cigarettes. 5.30 million people smoke bidi and 22 million people consume smokeless tobacco. It appears that the percentage of tobacco use has gone down, which is promising. On the other hand, there are inconsistencies and obstacles that are hindering the achievement of the desired goals of tobacco control.
Bangladesh is the ninth largest tobacco consuming country in the world. About 35.3 percent of the country's adult population uses tobacco and 1.61 lakh people die every year due to diseases related to tobacco use. According to the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019, tobacco is one of the four leading causes of death and disability in Bangladesh. The economic loss of tobacco use is Taka 30,560 crores annually. Despite these losses for tobacco, the country's tobacco cultivation area and its production are increasing. According to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) data, in 2020-21, more than 99,600 acres of land are under tobacco cultivation. At this time, 89,002 metric tons of tobacco were produced. In the next financial year, the area under tobacco cultivation increased to more than 1,00,384 acres and tobacco is produced 92,326 metric tons.
According to the National Board of Revenue, more than 7,159 crores of premium, high, medium and low grade cigarettes were sold in the country in the fiscal year 2020-21. The next year it increased to more than 7,564 crores and 5,195 crore cigarettes have been sold till February of 2022-23 financial year. If month-wise calculations are taken into consideration, it can be seen that the sale of cigarettes will exceed the previous year this year as well. According to anti-tobacco organizations, the rate at which tobacco taxes are increased is not enough, as tobacco products are becoming cheaper than the prices of everyday products.
Tobacco cultivation is causing the most damage to the environment as the tobacco plant emits large amounts of toxic substances, which also causes severe damage to the environment. Besides, a lot of fertilizers and pesticides are used in tobacco cultivation, which pollutes the soil and water and causes serious damage to aquatic flora including fish. For example Halda river is the only natural fish breeding ground in the country. Due to long-term tobacco cultivation on the hillsides, fertilizers and chemicals mixed with water used in tobacco cultivation and this toxic substances are directly falling into the river. This is seriously polluting Halda water and seriously affecting fish breeding and various aquatic animals are disappearing. Moreover, tobacco cultivation is responsible for 31 percent deforestation in the country. Therefore, it is very important to reduce tobacco cultivation gradually and stop tobacco cultivation completely within a certain period.
According to media reports, tobacco cultivation is increasing dangerously in the cropland of the northern region. With the encouragement of cigarette companies, farmers are growing tobacco in paddy and three-crop land. Due to lack of strong government regulations, farmers have turned to cultivation of deadly tobacco by abandoning food crops on cropland. Knowing the extreme loss, the farmers are turning to tobacco cultivation for the sake of more profit. With no land of their own, low-income people are encouraged to cultivate deadly tobacco in the hope of high profits and some cigarette companies and their local agents are encouraging them.
It is known that due to tobacco cultivation, the fertility of the land is decreasing drastically. Cultivation of tobacco for several years in the same land causes special weeds to grow in the land. Once this weed grows on the land, it is never possible to grow other crops on that land. Various suggestions are being made by the Department of Agriculture to discourage farmers from growing tobacco. Farmers are discouraged from tobacco cultivation at various times including field days with farmers, counseling at different places. But ignoring their advice, farmers are resorting to tobacco cultivation, which poses a risk to public health. According to a tobacco grower, he cultivates tobacco on 7/8 bigha of land every year. Along with tobacco, other crops are grown little. According to him, tobacco farming is more labor intensive but also more expensive. He is getting enthusiastic about tobacco cultivation mainly because of the high cost of paddy cultivation. Because he got advance fertilizers and pesticides according to the conditions given by the tobacco company. So he is cultivating tobacco. It is known that besides men, women and children are also involved in these activities and it is creating serious health risks for them. Moreover, thousands of furnaces have been built in different parts of the country for burning tobacco and thousands of tons of firewood are being used in these furnaces. Due to the burning of tobacco, it has an adverse effect on the surrounding environment.
Farmers are interested in growing toxic tobacco in the hope of immediate profit despite the fact that the farmers are aware of the serious damage to the environment, health and soil quality. Apart from the indifference of the agriculture department, setting the price of tobacco by the company before production, guarantee of sale, disbursement of interest-free loans for tobacco cultivation, regular field visits and advice by company representatives are the main reasons for the increase in tobacco cultivation. which farmers do not get officially for other crops. On the one hand, as the fertility of the land is being lost, on the other hand, the health risk is increasing.
The government provides a large amount of agricultural subsidies in the budget every year but the question arises that these tobacco farmers are deprived of these subsidies for various reasons. The government should discourage risky tobacco cultivation by providing agricultural subsidies to them. At the same time, advising the farmers not to grow tobacco through the relevant authorities in each area and informing them about the harmful aspects of growing tobacco. Leaf tobacco is not doing any good to human public health and the environment, so anti-tobacco activists say there is no alternative to effective tobacco control to address public health and environmental risks.
