'Soaring Tobacco Prices Tempting Farmers to Continue Cultivation'

Source from:  newkerala.com Mysore, Aug 3 08/05/2008

The tobacco farmers in Karnataka, who were once planning to surrender their licences, are now averse to giving up the cultivation because of the soaring prices of the commodity. As the prices of tobacco were getting all time high in the international market on account of the decline in global output of the commodity, tobacco farmers in the state were hoping for the prices to double during the coming auction season scheduled to begin from September. Karnataka Flue-Cured Variety (FCV) Tobacco Growers' Association President Javare Gowda told UNI that the compensation of Rs 2.5 lakh per barn proposed to farmers to surrender their tobacco cultivation license may not find many takers as the prices of tobacco which fetched an average of Rs 60 per kg last year, could well breach the Rs 120 per kg mark. Though the farmers were initially excited when they heard about the compensation package to be offered by the Tobacco Board to discontinue tobacco cultivation as part of the Centre's plan to phase it out under the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the soaring prices of tobacco appeared to have changed their mind, he said. The price of tobacco during the recently concluded auction season in Andhra Pradesh went up by 80 per cent from Rs 47 per kg to Rs 84 per kg. The quality of tobacco grown in Karnataka was considered to be far more superior to Andhra Pradesh tobacco, hence the farmers would prefer to wait for the price offered for their produce this year and weight their options before taking a decision, he added. Though the response for the Tobacco Board's compensation package was considered to be positive from the farmers of Andhra Pradesh, he said the situation was different in Karnataka. In Andhra Pradesh, tobacco cultivation was in the hands of big farmers, who won multiple barns, and face labour shortage. In Karnataka, a majority of tobacco farmers were small and marginal farmers, who themselves work in the fields, Mr Gowda said. Enditem