Farmers in Bangladesh grow tobacco because it yields the highest return of any crop and provides the grower with a large sum of money in one payment, according to a Dhaka Daily Star story quoting the results of a study conducted by the Policy Research Institute.
The study found, too, that tobacco farmers were much better off than were farmers who did not grow tobacco in respect of income and asset holdings.
At the same time, more than two thirds of the farmers studied reported that tobacco did not compete with food crops.
The report was entitled ‘Tobacco cultivation: an assessment of socio-economic and environmental impacts’.