Irate tobacco growers stalled the e-auctions in Podili in Prakasam district on Saturday in protest against the Tobacco Board’s decision to allow sale of black perished low(BPL) grade variety.
Leading the protest, Tobacco Growers Welfare Association president S.Venkateswara Reddy insisted that the Board take steps to liquidate the fast-discolouring medium and bright grade varieties of tobacco at a remunerative price before allowing BPL variety on the floors.
“We will not part with low grade tobacco at a price less than ₹100 per kg,” a group of farmers said.
Some farmers who were persuaded by the officials to bring at least a few BPL bales to the auction platforms in the Southern Light Soil(SLS) region went back without selling them following pressure from fellow farmers.
Some others did not bring the BPL variety of tobacco for auctions, fearing that the market for other varieties might go southwards if its sale was allowed at this juncture.
Farmers usually sell BPL variety at the fag-end after exhausting their authorised quota. In case it is not sold, they use it as a bio-fertilizer in their farms.
No demand
Farmers are in deep trouble this year as the prices offered by traders for low grade and medium grade varieties after lockdown was less than 30% over the prices prevailing before.
Except for F1 and F2 varieties, which are short supply this year, there is no demand for other grades of tobacco in the market.
The Tobacco Board has decided to facilitate sale of BPL variety of tobacco, which fetches farmers about ₹25 per kg as against a high price of ₹180 to ₹200 per kg for bright grade tobacco, on all Saturdays at the request of traders who wanted the BPL variety for mixing it with tobacco purchased from Karnataka.
