Federation of Karnataka Virginia Tobacco Growers’ Associations has urged various political parties in Karnataka to include policies for their welfare in their respective manifestoes ahead of the coming Assembly elections.
The appeal comes in the wake of a demand for tobacco control strategies by anti-tobacco activists.
After meeting farmers in various tobacco growing areas across Karnataka, federation president Javare Gowda has sought to draw the attention of political parties to their problems on account of rise in availability of smuggled and illicit cigarettes, and the ‘excessive’ taxation on cigarettes.
Tobacco farmers in Karnataka could produce 60 million kg of produce in 2022 against the authorised crop size of 100 million kg due to heavy rainfall, unseasonal rains, increasing cost of cultivation, fluctuations in the global market, illicit cigarette trade, and high taxation.
India is the second largest tobacco producing country in the world. About 70% of tobacco produced in Karnataka is exported to 120 countries, earning about ₹3,000 crore in valuable foreign exchange every year.
About one lakh farmers and 5 lakh farm labourers in Karnataka are dependent on tobacco crop, according to the federation. Tobacco is primarily cultivated in Hunsur, Periyapatna and H.D. Kote in Mysuru district, besides parts of adjoining Hassan district in Karnataka.
Federation secretary Vikramraj Urs pointed out that Indian tobacco is not used in smuggled cigarettes, thereby hitting the interests of Indian tobacco farmers and farm labourers.
He claimed that the Flue Cured Virginia (FCV) tobacco farming community faced business losses of over ₹7,000 crore with a drop in production from 325 million kg in 2014-15 to less than 200 million kg in 2022-23. He said more than 100 international brands of smuggled cigarettes had flooded the Indian market from all over the globe. “This is primarily on account of higher and punitive taxation on cigarettes, whose volume of sales has dropped significantly,” he said.
Hence, the federation has urged all political parties in Karnataka to consider tobacco farmers’ welfare in their manifesto for the Assembly elections in the State.
Appeal by anti-tobacco lobby in Karnataka
Earlier on March 20, Vasanthkumar Mysoremath, convener of Anti-Tobacco Forum in Mysuru, regretted the absence of serious tobacco control efforts in India though the commodity is known to cause death and disease among its consumers. He had urged political parties to come out with measures to gradually replace tobacco crop with alternative crops, and extend assistance to farmers in this regard.
