The Tobacco Board has announced interest-free loan of ₹10,000 for the farmers who lost their crop to Cyclone Mandous.
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Addressing the media on January 11 (Wednesday), Tobacco Board Production Manager Krishna Sri, who is also in-charge of Southern Light Soil (SLS) and Southern Black Soil (SBS) regions, said that the crop regulator had earmarked ₹28 crore for the purpose.
‘’More than 28,000 members of the Tobacco Growers’ Welfare Association are eligible for the soft loan which will be recovered at the time of marketing the produce,” she said.
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A uniform financial assistance would be provided to each farmer member irrespective of extent of land holding, she said, adding that the Tobacco Board had taken up with the bankers the farmers’ demand for rescheduling of crop loan advanced to them and sanctioning fresh loan for the the cultivation during the rabi season.
She said farmers, who had started cultivation in 53,000 hectares, lost their crop in about 26,000 hectares in the two regions. Without losing their heart, they went for replantation or gap filling as the situation demanded and the acreage had touched 59,000 hectare. ‘‘The condition of the crop is very good now,” she observed.
‘‘If there are no further unseasonal rains, a crop size of 92.69 million kg can be achieved,” she said. Going by the current auction trend in Karnataka, where the farmers had realised an average price of ₹239.20 per kg, their counterparts in Andhra Pradesh could expected remunerative price this year too, she hoped.
All grades of tobacco, including medium and low grade varieties, had fetched an average price of ₹172 per kg for 79 million kg marketed during the last season when compared to ₹140 per kg secured in the previous year as COVID-19 had played the spoilsport then, sources in the Tobacco Board said.