Over-Target Tobacco Banned From India's Auctions

Source from:  Tobacco Reporter 12/02/2010

The new chairman of the Tobacco Board of India has warned tobacco farmers against unauthorised plantings of flue-cured. In what seems to be a departure from the policy of his predecessor, the chairman, G Kamalavardhana Rao, recently told the Business Standard that farmers would not be allowed to bring unauthorized tobacco to the Board's auction platforms. Asked by Tobacco Reporter earlier this year about efforts to reduce the regular, over-target production of flue-cured tobacco (the only type of tobacco regulated by the Board), the then-chairman of the Board, Dr. J. Suresh Babu, said the Board had "successfully failed" in that objective. Although this was something of a joke, it encapsulated Babu's philosophy, which was based on the idea that since the Board was put in place to look after the interests of flue-cured growers, if it didn't do that, it had no validity. Times have perhaps changed, however, and the new chairman said that farmers who were growing unauthorized tobacco were causing problems for the Board. Consequently, the Board had formed special committees of 'Field Friends' with representatives of the Central Tobacco Research Institute, the Board and people representing the farmers. These friends had been posted at all the auction centers with the task of interacting with farmers on issues to do with good farming practices. But they would also keep an eye on farmers who increased the crop area without permission. Enditem