Ongole: Take responsibility for auction of all leaf produced, farmers tell Tobacco Board

Ongole: The tobacco farmers in Prakasam district have urged the Tobacco Board, which is about to fix the quantity of leaf they should produce for the next year on Tuesday, to also take up the responsibility of seeing the merchants purchase all leaf at a better price.

The tobacco farmers met under the leadership of Chunduri Rangarao, a former member of the Tobacco Board on Monday.

They opined that the board took the responses of the farmers who are dear to the auction center officials, but not the farmers at ground level. They alleged that the farmers who said to be demanding more crop next year, are agents of the corporate companies and that is why they received more price for their leaf in the last season. The farmers said that if the Tobacco Board chairman is really concerned about talking to the farmers, he should have sought the opinion of all farmers in each auction center region and the existing staff would have done it so smoothly. They announced that they are against the increase in the quantity of tobacco production unless the board takes the responsibility of selling every leaf that produced in the next season.

The farmers raised the concern that the Coronavirus has changed the complete atmosphere of farming now and created a situation where the workers are not available at the right time for the regular wages. They demanded to know from the board chairman and other officials what assurances they have brought to the farmers from the corporate companies and the cigarette manufacturers on the purchase of crop cultivated by paying hefty wages to the workers, are they ready to pay the expenses to the farmers at the time of the auction, etc. The farmers said that while they are taking about 110 days to cultivate the crop, the merchants are taking about 220 days to buy the leaf in the auction, that too at meagre prices. They sought to know the measures to be taken by the board to force the merchants to complete the purchase of all leaf they are indented for in the fixed time, with better prices.

The farmers said that the board chairman and the officers are trying to confuse the farmers from different regions and by igniting a false competition so that they could easily escape from the responsibility of providing better price from the merchants. They demanded the board chairman to act in the spirit of Section 8 of the Tobacco Board Act and take responsibility for all events, either good or bad, arising out of the decision after fixing the quantity of tobacco for the next season.