The cash crop costing Rangpur its land, health and food
More than half a century after tobacco first took root in Rangpur, farmers across northern Bangladesh remain trapped between environmental damage, health risks and the promise of guaranteed income
The old man squats at the edge of his field, running dry fingers through the soil the way a doctor checks a patient's pulse.
Abu Hossain, 50, has watched this land for three decades. He remembers when it was different — when kingfishers dove into the pond at the far end of his plot, when trees along the boundary hummed with birds and when the water ran clear.
That was before tobacco came.
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"The fish are gone," he says without looking up. "Three years ago, all of them died in a single day. The rain came the morning after the insecticide was sprayed. Everything in the pond just died."
His field sits in Rangpur Sadar upazila. In the early 1970s, British American Tobacco planted its first seeds here, drawn by the Teesta River's abundant water, surrounding forests suitable for curing leaves and rich alluvial soil.
Rangpur was, by every measure, an ideal farming district.
Seeds of a cash trap
More than half a century later, Rangpur and the surrounding northern districts — Lalmonirhat, Kurigram and Nilphamari — have become one of Bangladesh's largest tobacco-growing regions.
Bangladesh is now among the world's leading tobacco producers, and this region is where the industry established its deepest roots.
The numbers tell a story of relentless expansion.
In the early 1990s, roughly 40,000 hectares across Bangladesh were under tobacco cultivation. In recent years, that figure has surged past 100,000 hectares.
During the 2022–23 growing season alone, the country produced 65,227 tonnes of tobacco on 26,475 hectares. Per-hectare yields have also climbed by 73% since 2009, driven by high-yielding seed varieties and increasingly heavy use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides.
The tobacco companies claim this as progress.
For farmers, however, the story is more complicated.
They point to several reasons behind the shift: limited government support for food crop cultivation, advance price-setting by tobacco companies, guaranteed purchase agreements, interest-free loans for farming inputs, regular field visits by company representatives and technical assistance that many food crop farmers never receive.
Abdul Karim, a farmer from Menanagar village in Taraganj — the upazila with the highest concentration of tobacco farming in Rangpur district — knows the trade-off well.
Last year, he cultivated potatoes on 45 decimals of land and tobacco on 35 decimals. This season, he reduced his potato plot to just 12 decimals and expanded tobacco cultivation to nearly 1.6 acres.
The decision, he says, was not made lightly.
Cultivating potatoes on 45 decimals can cost up to Tk28,000 from planting to harvest, while seed prices hover around Tk55 per kilogram. After harvest, farmers are often forced to sell quickly at low prices to repay moneylenders, sometimes receiving only Tk13 to Tk15 per kilogram.
"When we harvest potatoes, we don't get a fair price," Karim said. "It costs a lot to grow them. Seed alone is around Tk55 per kilo, so I didn't go for potatoes this time. Tobacco doesn't require as much upfront cost, though it needs more labour. The companies also provide support, so I chose tobacco instead."
That support — seeds, fertiliser and pesticides on credit, along with regular field monitoring and guaranteed buyers — forms the foundation of the contract farming model that has tied thousands of farmers to tobacco cultivation.
As of 2023, British American Tobacco alone had nearly 52,000 contracted farmers in Bangladesh, up from 30,000 just five years earlier.
Under the arrangement, companies advance cultivation costs while retaining the authority to grade — and therefore determine the final price of — the crop.
In Ikarchali, Rahim Uddin from Pramanikpara village cultivated tobacco on one acre this season. He is aware of tobacco's impact on both land and health. Still, he continues growing it as alternatives have become increasingly difficult to afford.
"If I don't grow tobacco, what else can I do?" he said. "Potato farming needs cash upfront. Seed prices have gone up to Tk75 per kilo. To get a good price, you need cold storage. But tobacco can be dried and stored at home for months and sold whenever prices rise. On top of that, companies provide seeds, fertiliser and loans. That's why I chose tobacco."
Saiful Alam, additional deputy director (crops) of the Department of Agricultural Extension in Rangpur Division, disputes the claim that tobacco cultivation is expanding.
"The way it is being portrayed in newspapers and the media — that tobacco cultivation has increased — is actually the opposite," he said. "In this region, the impact of tobacco farming was far greater in the past."
"Over the past few years, it has been possible to reduce it significantly by raising awareness among farmers. We believe it can be reduced even further over time."
Yet figures from farmers, companies and anti-tobacco organisations present a more complicated picture.
According to them, around 1,920 hectares of land are currently under tobacco cultivation in Rangpur, including nearly 910 hectares in Taraganj alone.
Visits to at least 10 areas of the upazila reveal vast stretches of farmland covered entirely by tobacco. Across the fields, people of all ages — children, women and the elderly — can be seen irrigating land, plucking leaves and drying tobacco under the sun.
For some families, this labour structure is itself part of the attraction.
Jalal Uddin from Sarkarpara village in Haria Kuthi union explained why tobacco fits the realities of households struggling with poverty.
"With tobacco farming, everyone in the household — women and children included — can work," he said. "And there's no worry about selling it; it can be sold easily. That's why we grow tobacco. It has helped ease our financial hardship."
What the soil remembers
Researchers studying Rangpur's tobacco-growing regions have found measurable environmental damage.
Soil in tobacco fields has become significantly more acidic than in neighbouring non-tobacco areas. In several locations, soil pH levels have dropped below the minimum threshold required for healthy cultivation.
Ecological risk assessments also show sharp contrasts.
Tobacco fields in Rangpur Sadar recorded a pollution risk index of 126.16 — classified as "moderate risk" — while nearby non-tobacco fields in Mithapukur showed an index of just 45.23, categorised as no risk.
Surveys conducted in Badarganj, Taraganj, Rangpur Sadar and Gangachara found that 62% of farmers believed their soil productivity was declining.
More than 70% admitted they now apply larger amounts of chemical fertilisers each year simply to maintain yields — a cycle that further accelerates land degradation.
Agronomists note that tobacco strips nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium from the soil at rates higher than most major food or cash crops.
The land left behind after years of cultivation becomes thinner, more brittle and increasingly incapable of sustaining rice, lentils or vegetables that once grew there.
It is a slow form of destruction — almost invisible from one season to the next, but unmistakable over generations.
The crops that disappeared
Perhaps the most immediate human cost of tobacco expansion in Rangpur is the disappearance of food crops.
More than half of surveyed tobacco farmers acknowledged that tobacco cultivation had displaced native food crops from their land.
Rice paddies, mustard fields and lentil plots — crops that once sustained families and local markets — have gradually been replaced by tobacco in pursuit of short-term cash income.
For smallholder farmers living close to subsistence, the logic is difficult to ignore.
Backed by company credit and guaranteed buyers, tobacco offers more predictable returns than food crops exposed to volatile local markets.
Yet when unpaid family labour, healthcare expenses, soil degradation and environmental damage are factored in, tobacco cultivation often becomes economically unsustainable.
One study concluded that maize, mustard, potatoes and lentils were among the most suitable alternatives to tobacco cultivation.
But shifting away from tobacco requires access to capital, alternative credit systems and stable markets — conditions many small farmers in Rangpur still lack.
Only 46% of surveyed tobacco farmers said they would be willing to stop cultivating tobacco despite being aware of its harms.
Education levels, long-term dependence on tobacco income and the absence of meaningful government incentives remain major barriers.
The human cost in the fields
More than half of tobacco farmers in Rangpur reported health problems directly linked to their work.
These include respiratory illnesses, skin diseases and chronic fatigue caused by handling green tobacco leaves, which transfer nicotine through the skin in a condition known as green tobacco sickness.
Children, many of whom assist during harvest periods instead of attending school, remain among the most vulnerable.
The effects extend beyond farmers themselves.
Selim Ahmed works as a labourer in a tobacco field in Laxmipur village. He owns no land and has little control over the type of work available to him.
"When you work in tobacco fields, you lose your appetite," he said. "You feel dizzy and nauseous. But if we don't work, how will we eat? That's why we are forced to work with tobacco."
Tobacco farming also relies heavily on agrochemicals, including pesticides that are banned in some countries. These substances are often applied without proper protective equipment.
When rains arrive, the chemicals do not remain confined to the fields.
Researchers have also documented wider social consequences in tobacco-growing communities, including rising smoking addiction among youth, conflicts among workers and cycles of debt that trap families within the contract farming system year after year.
Asked about the environmental and health concerns surrounding tobacco cultivation in Rangpur, BAT Bangladesh — the only major tobacco company to respond to questions for this report despite outreach to several others — defended its operations.
A company spokesperson said BAT Bangladesh had maintained a "strong reputation" throughout its 116 years in the country and described itself as one of Bangladesh's leading taxpayers.
"As a responsible corporate entity, BAT Bangladesh operates a structured and monitored supply chain, integrating sustainability, farmer livelihoods and responsible sourcing," the spokesperson said.
The company also stated that it maintains a "zero-tolerance approach to child labour within its supply chain."
