Tobacco growers in the traditional growing areas in Prakasam and SPSR Nellore districts, who were hoping to make good the losses incurred due to the lockdown coinciding with the peak marketing season, on Wednesday expressed disappointment over the Tobacco Board cutting the crop size.
The ryots coming under the Southern Black Soil (SBS) and Southern Light Soil (SLS) auction platforms found fault with the crop regulator which at its meeting on Tuesday fixed a reduced crop of 71.34 million kg as against 86 million kg fixed during the last season.
It was unfortunate that the growers in the drought-prone parts districts were equated with their counterparts in West Godavari district who enjoyed irrigation facility and given a quota of only 29 quintals per barn, they said.
With lease alone accounting for ₹1,800 per quintal for curing, tenant, small and marginal farmers would have no option but to eschew the commercial crop which they had been cultivating all these years, said a tobacco farmer B. Ramanjaneyulu.
Pressing for per barn quota of at least 37.91 quintals as during last year, another farmer T. Ramanaiah from Kandukur said they could get the advantage of economics of scale only when they took up curing at an optimum level.
‘Reduce penalty’
The board should consider reducing penalty for the excess crop from 15% to 5%, said yet another farmer V.V. Prasad from Chekurapadu who also pressed for restoration of per barn quota of 34.6 quintals.
Former board member Ch. Ranga Rao said the board which fixed the crop size going by the indent submitted by traders, should take responsibility for the marketing of the produce as the ryots had been turned into captive growers meeting the needs of cigarette manufacturers and exporters who gave an exaggerated crop requirement and turned away from the market during adverse global economic situation as the one witnessed during this year following the outbreak of COVID-19.
Auctions should be conducted from January and completed within 100 days as farmers suffered because of reduction in weight and discolouration of the produce year after year, he said.
Meanwhile, YSR Congress farmers’ wing Praksam district president Mareddy Subba Reddy wanted the Tobacco Board to enter the market along with Markfed to create buoyancy in it. The Centre should reschedule crop loans of growers up to ₹ 4 lakh for five years without charging interest, he said.
A majority of barns constructed for curing a crop of up to 120 million kg in the two regions had been kept idle in view of the graduation reduction in the crop size, said another farmer leader P. Narasimha Rao, and wanted the Centre to announce a compensation of ₹10 lakh per barn to farmers willing to dismantle them to quit cultivation altogether.
