Bihar’s Tobacco Farmers Hit by Taboo and Deficient Monsoon

Bihar is the sixth largest tobacco producing state in the country; farmers pray for monsoons to save the crop.

Irshad Ahmad looks around the freshly-planted tobacco saplings and rues that this is the last window for survival. “If it does not rain now, the crop will be destroyed”, says the 62-year-old farmer whose main source of livelihood is the cash crop that is farmed across acres of farmland in Rampur, Samastipur.

The district goes to vote on Monday and already school compounds are filling in with Central forces to ensure smooth polling.

Bihar is the sixth largest tobacco producing state in the country. Besides Samastipur, it is also grown in Vaishali, Muzaffarpur, Darbangha and Sitamarhi.