India: Efforts on to Stop Tobacco Farming

Source from:  Asian Age (in)  10/08/2014

With an aim to encourage farmers to give up tobacco farming without any economic loss, Union health minister Harsh Vardhan has written to the agriculture and commerce ministers regarding developing a scheme to lure away growers from tobacco.

The minister has asked both the ministries for a brainstorming/consultation of experts in October so that a policy could be developed in this regard. Earlier in 2008, the Central Tobacco Research Institute (CTRI) and the agriculture ministry had identified soyabean, gram crop, turmeric and chilli as alternative crops that could be as profitable as growing tobacco and even could be grown on the same soil. However, the proposal could never see the light of the day.

The minister has once again asked both the ministries to develop a scheme so that the farmers could be encouraged to shift to growing alternate crops. "Various expert groups have already recommended economically-viable options of alternate crops for different regions of the country. The response of shifting over to alternate crops was overwhelming. The farmers demanded monetary and technical support for some period to ensure that they do not suffer losses," the health minister has said in his letter.

Significantly, India is the second largest consumer and producer of tobacco in the world. As per the figures for 2008-2009, more than 85 per cent of the area under tobacco cultivation is centred in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Gujarat, that accounts for more than nearly two-thirds of tobacco production of India. Enditem