Tobacco growers priced out of market

Some farmers in the Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh, India, have decided to call time on tobacco, having burnt their fingers for the second consecutive year, according to a story by S. Murali for The Hindu Online.

Murali wrote that there seemed to be no end to the woes of tobacco growers in the Prakasam district as the market slide continued in the wake of cigarette manufacturers stopping production following the Union Health Ministry’s notification requiring huge graphic warnings on tobacco packs.

Tobacco farming was said to have been all the rage in the district three years ago, because of the non-remunerative price for Bengal gram, the other crop that thrives in drought conditions.

But now, having burnt their fingers for the second consecutive year, growers had decided to call it quits irrespective of whether or not the Union government announced compensation for those volunteering to dismantle tobacco barns, according to a group of farmers who sell their tobacco at the Ongole I auction platform.

“If the present trend continues, tobacco growers may end up getting less than Rs100 per kg and incurring losses this year too,” former Tobacco Board member Ch. Ranga Rao was quoted as saying.

While the cost of all farm inputs kept going up year after year, the market price for tobacco kept going down.

“Farmers are forced to take a part of their produce back home since there are no takers, especially for ‘dark green’ and DX2 varieties of tobacco,” said another former board member M. Bangarababu.

“The loss per barn is likely to be Rs1.50 lakh [Rs150,000] for tenant farmers and Rs.1 lakh [Rs100,000] for farmers who own land and barn,” he said.

Southern Light Soil farmers have so far sold 25.9 million kg for an average price of Rs116.95 per kg, while Southern Black Soil farmers have sold 27.65 million kg for an average price of Rs116.20 per kg, according to Tobacco Board sources.