India: Prakasam Tobacco Growers on warpath

Source from:  The Hindu 07/24/2015

Peeved at the falling prices of tobacco even after the intervention by Union Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, farmers in Prakasam district have planned to go on a war path, seeking 'credible initiatives' by the Centre to lift market sentiments.

While the low grade tobaccos have faced rejection by the traders at the auction platforms, medium grade produce has fetched price much below what is needed to break even, Virginia Tobacco Growers Welfare Association president Chunchu Seshaiah told reporters here on Thursday.

"The crux of the problem is that low and medium grade tobaccos accounted for more than 65 per cent of the total production this year and without remunerative prices, the farmers are left in the lurch," he explained.

Finding fault with the Centre for leaving the ryots at the mercy of traders even after two rounds of talks in New Delhi and Vijayawada, he said farmers were perplexed as to why the Centre dilly-dallied on market intervention by the Tobacco Board which is flush with funds with over Rs. 428 crore collected as penalty collected from farmers who took up the crop beyond the permitted acreage.

"Going by the present trend, the average price may plummet to Rs. 80 per kg, if the Centre shuns its responsibility," former Tobacco Board member Ch.Ranga Rao said, adding that each farmer would be saddled with a loss of over Rs. 3 lakh per acre in the present situation.

As per the Tobacco Board Act, it was duty-bound to intervene in the market during crisis like the present one.

"The Ache din promised by the NDA government remains a mirage for farmers who are not in a position to break even, leave alone making profit," he said, fearing that the farmers might not be able to market the estimated crop of 195 million kg even in October without a bail-out package from the Centre.

The farmers in the State were able to market only 70.88 million kg of tobacco so far and got an average price of Rs 106.25 per kg, explained another former Tobacco Board member M. Bangarababu. Ryots cutting across party-lines would meet here on July 26 to chalk out agitation programme, he added. Enditem