Tobacco Board to reduce crop size by 8%

Tobacco Board chairman, G Kamala Vardhana Rao, on Wednesday said that the tobacco crop size would be reduced by 8 per cent or about 59 million kgs (mkg) even in the current year.

The board has brought the crop size by the similar quantum last year by reducing the crop size by 5 per cent in Andhra Pradesh and 3 per cent in Karnataka. About 250,000 hectares are under tobacco cultivation in the two states.

India produces around 735 mkg of tobacco annually, of which 375 mkg is utilised for making cigarettes, while 360 mkg is meant for non-cigarette products like beedi and chewing tobacco.

The board, which is the signatory to the World Health Organisation's Framework Convention for Tobacco Control, is reducing the crop size as a part of its effort to curb tobacco usage.

Rao said that the board was also encouraging tobacco farmers to shift to the cultivation of alternate crops like maize, cotton and pulses. Last year, over 4,000 out of an estimated 150,000 tobacco farmers, raised alternate crops instead of tobacco.

He said that the Union government was examining a rehabilitation package, submitted to it three years back, for encouraging tobacco farmers to shift to alternate crops.The tobacco farmers were demanding compensation for the barns they have set up at a cost of Rs 2-3 lakh.