It is possible to produce about 15 per cent more cotton than the current production if the tobacco cultivation land of the country is brought under the cotton cultivation.
If such decision is executed it will help to reduce the import cost by about Tk 6000 crore.
Textile and Jute Minister Golam Dastagir Gazi Bir Protik, MP, has said that his ministry will work with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Commerce in this regard.
The minister said this following a meeting with a delegation of the Tobacco Control and Research Cell (TCRC) and Bangladesh Anti Tobacco Alliance (BATA) at the conference room of his ministry on Sunday (February 12).
The delegation of anti-tobacco activists and researchers on tobacco control held the meeting with the minister in support of strengthening the tobacco control law and increasing cotton cultivation on tobacco farming land.
During the meeting, the delegation placed the above-mentioned information to Textile and Jute Minister Golam Dastagir Gazi and discussed cotton cultivation as an alternative to tobacco farming.
Farhana Zaman Liza, project manager at TCRC of Dhaka International University (DIU) told Bangladesh Post that the TCRC research team finds out that if cotton is cultivated on tobacco farming land in the country, it is possible to produce more cotton than the current production by more than 13 times or about 15 per cent of the total demand. It will also
Help reduce the import cost by about Tk 6000 crore annually.
The delegation told the minister that cotton can be grown on land where tobacco is grown, it will be profitable for the country and the government and will play a vital role in protecting public health.
The anti-tobacco activists sought help from the minister and the Ministry of Textiles and Jute in stopping tobacco cultivation in Bangladesh and strengthening the tobacco control law.
At the time, Golam Dastagir Gazi, MP, said that the process of amending the tobacco control act is ongoing. He and his ministry have the full support in this regard. “Our ministry’s support will continue in tobacco control activities in order to achieve the goal of tobacco-free Bangladesh by 2040 as per the announcement of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina,” he said.
The minister also talked about the initiative to grow cotton on tobacco farming land. “The idea will contribute to the increase of cotton production and to meet the shortage of cotton in the country. We will work with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Commerce in this regard,” he added.
Md Bazlur Rahman, project director of TCRC and an associate professor at DIU, Hamidul Islam Hillol, project manager of Bureau of Economic Research (DER) at Dhaka University, Farhana Zaman Liza of TCRC, Md Julhas Ahmed, project officer at TCRC; Md. Samiul Hasan Sajib, project officer at WBB Trust; and Bivuti Bhuson Mahato were present at the meeting.
They said that Bangladesh needs about 85 lakh bales of cotton every year while about 80 lakh bales of cotton have to be imported, whose import value is more than 35 thousand crore taka. Turning the tobacco farming land into cotton cultivation is a solution.
They said that tobacco is a serious threat to public health, social degradation, economy and environment. Tobacco is cultivated on about 99,600 acres of land in the country every year.
However, although the export income from the cloth is 31.6 billion US dollars, cotton is grown on only 8,430 acres of land in the country. From which 1 lakh 37 thousand 990 bales of cotton are produced, which is only 2 per cent of the total demand.
