Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday said the interests of tobacco farmers would be taken care of in these difficult times.
Addressing a review meeting on tobacco, Mr. Jagan said the government would intervene to help distressed tobacco farmers in purchases.
In two-three days, a special committee headed by an IAS officer would be constituted to look into the challenges being faced by tobacco farmers and the government would fix minimum sale prices for high, medium and low quality tobacco, the Chief Minister said.
Tough message
The list of rates approved by the government would be available at all purchase centres during auctions, he said and made it clear that the licensed traders and companies should participate in the auction process.
During the meeting, the officials listed the challenges being faced due to COVID-19 and farmers present in the meeting spoke in detail about the impact of the lockdown on the tobacco business.
“This year, 20 million kg of low and medium grade varieties of tobacco, which accounted for a majority of the produce, has been rejected by the traders, “ the officials said.
Price fixation
Representatives of farmers told the CM that they were asked to harvest the crop and when it was ready to be sold, but it was not reaching the auction centres. They complained that companies registered for purchases did not participate in the process.
Mr. Jagan said the board and the companies should work together and fix a minimum rate to be laid for all the three grades of tobacco. Purchases should be made in accordance with the State prices, else licences would be revoked.
Ministers Kurasala Kannababu, Adimulapu Suresh, and Balineni Srinivas Reddy, and TTD Chairman Y.V. Subba Reddy were among those present.
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