Rangpur plantings down

The amount of land planted to tobacco in the Rangpur district of Bangladesh is this season down by about 13 percent on that of the previous season, according to a story in The Daily Star. And it is down by about 69 percent on that of the 2012-13 season, when a modern record was set.
The Star report said that the fall in plantings had come about as farmers had realized the bad impact that tobacco was having on their health and that of consumers.
The senior agriculture officer at the Rangpur Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), Sajidur Rahman, was reported to have said that about 1,388 ha of land had been planted to tobacco in Rangpur during the 2017-18 cropping season, down from 1,595 ha in 2016-17.
About 4,500 ha had been planted to tobacco in Rangpur during the 2012-13 season, which was the highest ever in the district in recent years.
But, after that, plantings had started to drop. During the 2013-14 season, 2,522 ha was planted to tobacco, while by 2014-15, plantings had fallen to 2,130 ha.