Ahead of a Tobacco Board meeting on August 5 (Wednesday) to finalise the crop size for the 2020-21 cropping season, farmers in the traditional tobacco-growing areas in Prakasam district on Monday urged the Tobacco Board to defer a decision on crop production until a full assessment is made of the damage inflicted on the sector by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lockdown-hit farmers from Ongole, Vellampalli and Kondepi auction platforms, who took stock of the market conditions here, feared that the demand for flue-cured tobacco might come down significantly during the next cropping season.
The Tobacco Board should defer a decision on crop production at least by three weeks to study international demand, former Tobacco Board member Ch. Ranga Rao told reporters.
“There is no need for haste in fixing the crop size two months in advance,” they said.
The farmers opined that the Tobacco Board could opt for a crop holiday during the coming rabi season in a worst-case scenario. However, if things fall in place, the crop size should not be more than 100 million kg so as not to burden Markfed which had entered the market at the the bidding of Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, as those who had given an indent at the time of fixation of crop size did not turn up at the auction centres in strength during marketing, said another former Tobacco Board member M. Bangara Babu.
Cultivation of the labour-intensive crop in Karnataka had been severely affected and some of their counterparts in the neighbouring State could not take up curing operations in time due to acute labour shortage, explained Vellampalli Tobacco Farmers Association president A. Seshagiri Rao.
The farmers were badly affected because of the lockdown as they were unable to market the crop produced in 100 days even after 200 days, said Kondepi Tobacco Farmers Association president R. Venkateswara Rao.
Poor farmers had lost over ₹4,000 per quintal for bright grade in the early phase of auctions due to lack of competition then. With exporters entering late, the price went over ₹180 per kg, said Andhra Pradesh Rythu Sangam Prakasam district president P. Hanumantha Rao. They thanked Chief Minister and TTD Board Chairman and former Ongole MP Y.V. Subba Reddy for coming to their rescue.
Only after market intervention by Markfed, were farmers able to liquidate low grade varieties hitherto rejected by traders, they said.
