The farmers cultivating Flue-Cured Virginia (FCV) tobacco have urged the Centre to drop the proposal of introducing contract farming system. The farmers made this demand on the Global Tobacco Growers’ Day that was celebrated at various auction platforms on Thursday.
Tobacco Board former vice-chairman Gadde Seshasgiri Rao said that the contract farming in tobacco would only aggravate the problems of farmers and the move could jeopardise the interests of small farmers.
Even globally, he said, the Malawi and the Zimbabwe governments were being urged to move swiftly to put a stop to the contract farming system. The growers were met with unfavourable contract conditions, low prices, deductions, inflation, and currency fluctuations.
In the event that the farmers failed to repay their loans due to factors beyond their control, the farmers became indebted to tobacco buyers, he added.
