The Hindu : National : Rs. 2.17 cr. for tobacco alternative cropping

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Rs. 2.17 cr. for tobacco alternative cropping

Aarti Dhar

In India, 40 per cent of all cancers are due to tobacco use
5.5 million people get jobs in the beedi sector

NEW DELHI: The Union government has sanctioned Rs.2.17 crore to Rajahmundry-based Central Tobacco Research Institute (CTRI) to undertake a pilot project on “Alternative cropping system to beedi and chewing tobacco” in various States.

The pilot projects will be taken up at Nandyal (Andhra Pradesh), Anand (Gujarat), Dharmaj (Gujarat), Nipani (Karnataka), Vedasandur (Tamil Nadu) and Dinhata (West Bengal).

Three-year project

The project is aimed at establishing viable and sustainable alternatives to beedi and chewing tobacco crops. The three-year project will be carried out in different agro-ecological sub-regions. Sugarcane, vegetables, garlic, maize, fruits, pepper, cotton, sweet potato are some of the alternative crops proposed to be cultivated by the tobacco-growing farmers.

Studies have found that turmeric, onion, potato, garlic, mustard, sugarcane are also good alternative crops to chewing tobacco crop while cotton, maize, sunflower, groundnut, soybean, chillies are good alternatives to beedi tobacco crops. The project will also look at challenges that the farmers are likely to face during the process of transition, including issues of market support and agriculture research.

The project will be appraised by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on yearly basis and it is hoped that the result of the project will help facilitate the tobacco farmers to shift from chewing/beedi tobacco to other equally profitable alternatives. This will ultimately result in the reduction in tobacco grown in the country in the long-run.

India is the third largest producer of tobacco in the world after China and Brazil. In India, 40 per cent of all cancers are due to tobacco use and as per the tobacco control report, every year 8-9 lakh Indians die because of tobacco-related disease. The tobacco is grown and used for manufacturing cigarettes, beedi and chewing forms mainly. India accounts for more than 85 per cent of the world’s beedi production.

As per the 2002 data, beedi tobacco occupied around 30 per cent of the total area under tobacco cultivation and 33 per cent of the total tobacco production in the country.

As per the estimates of Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), 2,90,000 people are involved in growing beedi tobacco. As per the National Sample Survey 50th round carried out in 1993-94 , 26,34,000 people are employed in the beedi sector.

However, 5.5 million people get jobs in the beedi sector which includes cultivation, processing, manufacture, wholesale trade and retail.

About 74 per cent of tobacco-dependent employment is in the beedi manufacture and 76 per cent of the beedi-makers are women and they also constitute 44 per cent of the total labour force engaged in beedi tobacco cultivation.

In addition, the beedi industry directly supports nearly 2.2 million tribal people, who are engaged in the plucking and sale of ‘tendu’ leaves. Beedi tobacco cultivation is labour-intensive in nature; the number of mandays spent in cultivation of beedi tobacco crop ranges from 144 to 241 days a hectare in a year.

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