Indian Growers Urged to Stick to Targets

Source from:  Tobacco Reporter 01/08/2009

Jan 7, 2009-Tobacco growers in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka are being urged to stick to the crop sizes fixed by the Tobacco Board, according to a Business Line report quoting the board chairman J. Suresh Babu. Speaking at the Tobacco Board Formation Day celebrations in Guntur on Friday, Babu said the board had fixed flue-cured crop sizes at 170 million kg in Andhra Pradesh and 100 million kg in Karnataka, and that it would not be possible to revise them upwards. Farmers in India have regularly grown more tobacco than has been targeted by the board, and record price levels during the past two years have increased the incentive to grow more than the set amounts. Enditem