India: Centre Urged to Solve Tobacco Farmers'' Problems

Source from:  The Hindu 12/02/2015

YSR Congress Whip in Parliament Y.V. Subba Reddy has urged the Centre to come out with a policy initiative for finding a permanent solution to the problem of tobacco farmers.

Raising the issue of 20 tobacco growers committing suicide during this year, in the Lok Sabha under rule 371 on Tuesday, the MP also wanted the agro-products division of the FMCG ITC to be involved by the Centre in helping tobacco growers to switch over to other remunerative crops.

The drought-prone Prakasam district accounted for 50 per cent of the tobacco production in the country.

The Union Commerce and Finance Ministries along with the major domestic player ITC should work out ways to provide succour to the farmers in the tobacco sector which earned precious foreign exchange to the tune of Rs 6,060 crore in 2013-14 and Rs 5,200 crore in 2014-15, a release from the MP's office said.

The Centre, which wanted to discourage tobacco cultivation for health reasons, could phase out tobacco cultivation over a period by providing suitable compensation to farmers willing to dismantle tobacco barns, he suggested, adding that the Tobacco Boardshould not have any problem in providing compensation to the growers. Enditem