Tobacco cultivators in Mysore district will demand almost double the price the Tobacco Board paid last year for the crop this year.
The Karnataka Rajya Rytha Sangha (KRRS) has convened a meeting of tobacco growers of the district at Katte Malalavadi in Hunsur taluk on August 25 to press for a higher rate. They will demand Rs 110-120 per kg. as against the average of about Rs 58 paid last year by the board.
“When tobacco growers in Andhra Pradesh were paid Rs 99 last time, the board should pay a higher rate to tobacco growers in Karnataka as they cultivate the world’s best tobacco,” state farmers’ association president K S Puttannaiah said today in Mysore.
Due to the lower prices they got last year, the farmers suffered a loss of Rs 360 crore in the state, he said. The tobacco production last year was around 9.5 million kgs and this year, it was expected to be lesser though the area under tobacco has expanded.
He charged that the Tobacco Board was in the hands of the capitalists and the tobacco cultivators’ interests had suffered in Karnataka.
Puttannaiah also announced that the state farmers would hold a massive demonstration before the Vidhana Soudha in Bangalore, if the Karnataka government failed to bestow attention towards the farmers’ issues.
The budget by the BJP government presented by chief minister B S Yeddyurappa had failed to suggest solution to check suicide by farmers. Similarly, the issue had not been debated in the Assembly.
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The issues relating to plantation cultivators and commercial crops also remained neglected, he charged.
He opposed the proposal to ask farmers to clear the power dues and said as it is the farmers who had not paid their electricity bills and would not pay even if the government demanded.
KRRS secretary Bagalapura Nagendra suggested installation of meters instead of having them at the farmers’ pumpsets.
The KRRS also lead a demonstration of sugarcane growers at Bannari Amman Sugar Factory near Nanjangud today demanding payment of the State Advisory Price of Rs 160 per tonne due to them.