Several tobacco farmers in Periyapatna are up in arms against the authorities for the poor response from traders to their produce. Accusing the Tobacco Board of failing to come to their rescue, farmers have been disrupting proceedings at the auction platform in Periyapatna for the past three days.
Not only did they complain of poor response from traders, the farmers alleged that the price offered for their produce has remained the same for the past four or five years while the cost of other goods and services has been increased steadily.
A section of the farmers trained their guns on Pratap Simha, MP for Mysuru, for his failure to respond to their difficulties despite making tall promises of standing by them during the elections.
Sources in the Tobacco Board, however, said most tobacco farmers have been receiving better prices for their produce this year in comparison to the last. But the farmers whose produce falls in the lower grade are getting a raw deal. The quantity of tobacco falling in lower grade has increased this year on account of heavy rainfall and floods. Tobacco grown along the banks of Lakshmanthirta and other tributaries of the Cauvery in different parts of Periyapatna and Hunsur taluks fell into lower grade.
Lower grade tobacco used to account for roughly 30% of the total output every year. This year, the quantum has increased by 3-4 million kg. “There have been no buyers for some qualities of lower grade tobacco, particularly after traders shifted to the auctions at Guntur in the neighbouring State of Andhra Pradesh,” a source in the board confirmed.
A Tobacco Board official said that though farmers were advised to stay away from the auction platforms till the situation improved, they were unwilling to take heed of the advice.
The farmers, meanwhile, are anxious to dispose of their produce as the board plans to wind up auctions by the last week of December. They began in the second week of September.
However, board officials are confident that all of the tobacco will be auctioned off, for the total output this year had fallen from the sanctioned crop size of 100 million kg to about 90 million kg on account of rains and floods.
