Tobacco Board asked to ensure remunerative price
Hyderabad, June 23 (INN): Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu assured the tobacco farmers that the state and union governments and tobacco board will not let farmers face any losses due to lack of demand. In order to sustain the overall growth of tobacco crop and save farmers from incurring losses, he directed the Tobacco Board to buy the crop yield from traders across the state.
After tobacco farmers submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister on June 19th in Vijayawada, he held a meeting today at the Secretariat with farmers from Guntur, Prakasam and West Godavari districts along with ministers Prathipati Pulla Rao, Peethala Sujatha and Tobacco Board Chairman K. Gopal.
The Chief Minister directed the Tobacco Board to take up initiatives to try to get a remunerative price for the produce and work on enhancing productivity. 'Relying on high procurement of crop earlier, farmers have expanded their crop area. This has resulted to a decline in demand,' he added. He requested traders to come forward to save tobacco farmers from this crisis.
He informed that he has already spoken to Union Minister for Commerce and Industry NirmalaSitharaman who promised to save the farmers from incurring losses. Stating that the quality of tobacco will take a beating if the crop is lying with farmers, the Chief Minister said, traders must purchase the crop at a cost price and store in their godowns.
Farmers informed the Chief Minister that out of 190 million kilos of tobacco produced, traders have sought for purchase of 172 million kilos, while the actual quantity purchased stood at 39 million kilos.
Thus, to avoid such huge difference in demand and supply, the Chief Minister suggested farmers to cultivate the crop based on demand. He also added that the farmers must quote the price of the produce in advance so that there are no difference between the traders and farmers.
Special Chief Secretary (Agriculture) P. Vijayakumar, Secretary to CM Sai Prasad and tobacco board ED Subba Rao were present.
News Posted: 23 June, 2015
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