According to a senior Tobacco Board official: "The crop is shaping up well and growers are awaiting a few early showers to carry out full-fledged farm activities. Farmers across the region carried out the nursery activities a month ago."
The Tobacco Board has fixed Karnataka's Flue Cured Virginia (FCV or traditional tobacco) crop size at 100 million kg for 2008-09, an increase of 5.26 per cent over the pervious year's (2007-08) crop size of 95 million kg.
"The crop size has been hiked due to the strong global demand for FCV tobacco varieties, especially from global cigarettes makers," said the official.
In the state, export grade VCF tobacco is grown mainly in the southern and Malnad taluks of Mysore, Hassan and Shimoga districts. There are about 41,000 registered tobacco growers and it is cultivated over 86,000 hectares.
"A total of 87.61 million kg of tobacco was marketed and farmers during the crop year 2007-08 got an average price of Rs 60-65 per kg as against the previous crop year's Rs 50-55 a kg, and are looking forward to a much larger crop size this year to capitalise on the huge global demand for tobacco," said the official.
