To produce or not to produce: tackling the tobacco dilemma

This study seeks to look into the economics of tobacco cultivation in Bangladesh. At tire macro level, tire importance of tobacco farming has been declining. However, a survey conducted on 300 tobacco farmers in 19 villages of Rangpur and Kushtia revealed the increasing importance of tobacco at th...

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Bibliografische gegevens
Hoofdauteurs: Naher, Firdousi, Chowdhury, AMR
Formaat: Research report
Taal:English
Gepubliceerd in: BRAC 2019
Onderwerpen:
Online toegang:http://hdl.handle.net/10361/13098
id 10361-13098
record_format dspace
spelling 10361-130982019-11-26T03:32:39Z To produce or not to produce: tackling the tobacco dilemma Naher, Firdousi Chowdhury, AMR Tobacco Tobacco--Bangladesh. This study seeks to look into the economics of tobacco cultivation in Bangladesh. At tire macro level, tire importance of tobacco farming has been declining. However, a survey conducted on 300 tobacco farmers in 19 villages of Rangpur and Kushtia revealed the increasing importance of tobacco at the micro level with more-tlum a quarter of tire sample farmers joining tire rank of a tobacco farmer in tire past five years. The driving force behind this phenomenon has been the apparent profitability of growing this crop. Tobacco cultivation requires intensive labour and most farmers economise on the labour cost by using their own household labour. When the imputed value of this is taken into account, tobacco loses much of its profitability. Therefore, when weighed on a cost-benefit scale, tobacco often yields a lower economic profitability titan a number of other crops. Our study identified some of these crops as maize, potato, sugarcane, sunflower, cauliflower and tuberose. Most farmers seemed aware of the health and environmental hazards to tobacco but continued growing the crop because of overriding factors such as guaranteed market and ready cash (which is not tire case with most other crops). Even though tobacco is a good source of revenue for tire government, this industry cannot be promoted given its 'merit bad' character. Informing the farmers about tire true economies of tobacco, providing marketing facilities, introducing sustainable procurement drives at reasonable prices and enhancing tire storage capacity of alternate high value crops could act as catalysts for farmers to quit tobacco farming. 2019-11-24T11:02:38Z 2019-11-24T11:02:38Z 2002-04 Research report Naher, F., & Chowdhury, A. M. R. (2002, April). To produce or not to produce: tackling the tobacco dilemma. Research Reports (2002): Economic Studies, Vol - XVIII , 227–266. http://hdl.handle.net/10361/13098 en application/pdf BRAC
institution Brac University
collection Institutional Repository
language English
topic Tobacco
Tobacco--Bangladesh.
spellingShingle Tobacco
Tobacco--Bangladesh.
Naher, Firdousi
Chowdhury, AMR
To produce or not to produce: tackling the tobacco dilemma
description This study seeks to look into the economics of tobacco cultivation in Bangladesh. At tire macro level, tire importance of tobacco farming has been declining. However, a survey conducted on 300 tobacco farmers in 19 villages of Rangpur and Kushtia revealed the increasing importance of tobacco at the micro level with more-tlum a quarter of tire sample farmers joining tire rank of a tobacco farmer in tire past five years. The driving force behind this phenomenon has been the apparent profitability of growing this crop. Tobacco cultivation requires intensive labour and most farmers economise on the labour cost by using their own household labour. When the imputed value of this is taken into account, tobacco loses much of its profitability. Therefore, when weighed on a cost-benefit scale, tobacco often yields a lower economic profitability titan a number of other crops. Our study identified some of these crops as maize, potato, sugarcane, sunflower, cauliflower and tuberose. Most farmers seemed aware of the health and environmental hazards to tobacco but continued growing the crop because of overriding factors such as guaranteed market and ready cash (which is not tire case with most other crops). Even though tobacco is a good source of revenue for tire government, this industry cannot be promoted given its 'merit bad' character. Informing the farmers about tire true economies of tobacco, providing marketing facilities, introducing sustainable procurement drives at reasonable prices and enhancing tire storage capacity of alternate high value crops could act as catalysts for farmers to quit tobacco farming.
format Research report
author Naher, Firdousi
Chowdhury, AMR
author_facet Naher, Firdousi
Chowdhury, AMR
author_sort Naher, Firdousi
title To produce or not to produce: tackling the tobacco dilemma
title_short To produce or not to produce: tackling the tobacco dilemma
title_full To produce or not to produce: tackling the tobacco dilemma
title_fullStr To produce or not to produce: tackling the tobacco dilemma
title_full_unstemmed To produce or not to produce: tackling the tobacco dilemma
title_sort to produce or not to produce: tackling the tobacco dilemma
publisher BRAC
publishDate 2019
url http://hdl.handle.net/10361/13098
work_keys_str_mv AT naherfirdousi toproduceornottoproducetacklingthetobaccodilemma
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