India: Illegal Cigarettes Hitting Tobacco Farmers Hard

Source from:  Sakshipost 01/15/2016

Hyderabad: In an indication of the rising woes of the farmers, tobacco farmers have begun committing suicide in the state. In the last one year alone, as many as 12 tobacco farmers ended lives.

The farmers attribute their plight to the sale of illegal foreign cigarettes in the state.

As per reports, illegal market of foreign cigarettes is growing at a rate of 31 per cent a year. And this is affecting the livelihood of tobacco farmers. The custom authorities have seized approximately 10 crore cigarette sticks last year alone.

Gadde Seshagiri Rao, General Secretary of Farmers' Welfare Association states that as the domestic tobacco market is imposed with high taxes, illegal cigarettes are growing. These contraband cigarettes don't even carry the statutory health warning making the consumer to believe that they are less hazardous to health.

Tobacco is a cash crop and the plant withstands vagaries of the weather. Due to this, the farmers end up making profits. But the surge on sale of foreign cigarettes has affecting the livelihood of 45 million people including the farm labour, Rao said. Enditem