Ahead of the Tobacco Board meeting on August 18 to finalise the crop size for 2020-21 cropping season, farmers in the traditional tobacco growing areas in Prakasam and Nellore districts on Sunday urged the Board not to cut the crop size for this year.
On no account should the crop size be reduced in the Southern Black Soil(SBS) and Southern Light Soil(SLS) regions, farmer leaders from 12 auction platforms said after a meeting. They also pressed for a crop size of 85 million kg for these regions.
As these are drought areas, the farmers in the two districts have been growing only tobacco for long without any viable economic alternative. Those that did find an alternative in growing Bengal gram were now ruing their fate, unable to sell the produce in view of the depressed market condition in the last four years, the leaders said.
While fixing the crop size, the Board should permit 50 quintal per barn as any reduction in the authorised quantity would make curing uneconomical, said a farmer leader from Kandukur T. Ramanaiah.
A major part of the pulse crop grown during the period had been confined to the cold storage units, explained another farmer leader V.V. Prasad.
The Board should not succumb to pressure from any quarter while fixing the crop size in the traditional tobacco growing areas. They could reduce the crop size in Northern Light Soil region instead, as it is endowed with assured irrigation, felt former Tobacco Board member P. Bhadri Reddy.
Any reduction in crop size should be accompanied by reduction in the number of tobacco barns, said Tobacco Farmers Welfare Association president D.C. Palli Galli Narasappa Naidu. Farmers would be willing to quit tobacco cultivation altogether if they were provided a compensation of ₹10 lakh each for dismantling barns, the primary tobacco processing unit, said yet another farmer leader from Tangutur P. Narasimha Rao.