Tobacco growers are a worried lot with the Tobacco Board increasing the crop size by 10 million kg to 130 million kg in the State for 2016-17 without conceding their demand of fixing the price for various grades of tobacco.
Tobacco farming had been a rage in the drought-prone Prakasam district till 2013-14 with production going to a high of 210 million kg by violating the crop size.
But it is no longer so.
The growers had cut down the production to 192 million kg in 2014-15 and to 120 million kg in 2015-16 in view of the declining demand for tobacco.
Some cigarette manufacturers stopped production in April this year after the Union Health Ministry enforced a larger pictorial warning on cigarette packets. This had come as a big shock for the growers who could not get decent returns though they stuck to the truncated crop size during the last cropping season.
“We are no longer confident of breaking even, leave alone making profits, by growing tobacco after burning our fingers by growing the commercial crop year after year,” says a group of farmers coming under Ongole I auction platform, gearing up to grow chilli and pulses such as red gram, black gram during the kharif season and Bengal gram in a big way during rabi season.
The State government has suggested to the Tobacco Board to cut down the crop size to 100 million kg, taking into account the difficulties faced by the growers in getting remunerative price for their produce, says Ongole I auction platform farmers’ association president S. Gurava Reddy. “We will go in a delegation to meet Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and seek his intervention,” he added.
There is no logic in increasing the crop size by the regulator without arriving at Minimum Guaranteed Price (MGP) for various grades of tobacco during the coming cropping season, argues Virginia Tobacco Growers’ Association president Ch. Seshaiah. “Farmers have been reduced to captive growers to meet the needs of cigarette manufacturers and exporters,” he laments.
‘Disastrous’
“The hike in quota will be disastrous for farmers at a time when the Indian Tobacco Association (ITA) has submitted indents only for 126 million kg during 2016-17,” opines former Tobacco Board member Ch. Ranga Rao while making a reference to the spate of suicides by growers during the 2014-15 cropping season following depressed market condition.
Tobacco barns, which fetched a very high rent of Rs.1.50 lakh during 2013-14 cropping season, have no takers even at a reduced rent of Rs. 50,000 per barn as the tenant growers are the worst-hit due to fluctuating market price, observes Prakasam district Rythu Sangham general secretary D. Gopinath.
The Centre, which had committed to the World Health Organisation to phase out tobacco cultivation over a period, should help the growers wind up the barns by offering at least Rs. 8 lakh per barn as compensation, adds YSR Congress farmers’ wing district president M. Subba Reddy.
Without dismantling the tobacco curing infrastructure, the farmers will not be able to move out to other crops on a permanent basis, he adds.
