Growers in Bangladesh Mount Price Protests

Source from:  Tobacco Reporter 06/02/2010

Some tobacco growers in the Rangpur region of Bangladesh are claiming they cannot sell at fair prices the leaf they were encouraged to grow by tobacco companies, according to a New Age story. They have been staging a series of protests and urging the government to force the tobacco companies to buy the leaf at fair prices. The farmers say they were encouraged with loans, inputs and cost-free tobacco seeds provided by a number of tobacco companies that said they would buy what was produced at fair prices, a situation that led to large-scale tobacco farming. With the opportunity of earning lucrative profits as they did last year, the farmers cultivated tobacco on more land, including on land usually set aside for other crops. Enditem