The tobacco control programme of the ministry of health may see some paradox. In its strategy to curtail tobacco production to control its usage in India, the ministry of agriculture has decided to embark on a phase-wise elimination of all varieties except the cigarette-producing one.
The tobacco control programme is the government’s commitment as the country is a signatory of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) of the World Health Organization (WHO). The treaty envisages non-price, price and tax measures to reduce the supply and demand for tobacco in the world. While the ministry of health is conducting the tobacco control programme, the ministry of agriculture is the authority to decide on the framework for keeping tobacco crops under check.
The objective for tobacco production control is to bring down the total area under the crop from 450,000 hectares currently to 200,000 hectares in 2020. This is expected to bring down tobacco output from 750 million kg to 250 million kg.
Official sources said the cigarette smoking varieties, such as flue-cured virginia ( FCV), burley and oriental, etc, are also export varieties of tobacco.
“These are highly remunerative cash crops, with tremendous exchange earning potential, being export varieties. Producers of FCV varieties earn very high return on investment, unlike non FCV varieties. Besides, there is an institutional mechanism to support the marketing, funding and other facilities for tobacco production and exports under the aegis of the ministry of commerce and the Tobacco Board. Thus, these varieties have wider implication in terms of domestic employment and exports for the country.
It is difficult to phase out these varieties as compensation to be paid to producers will be very high to shift to alternate crops,” said an official source involved in drawing up the framework for the tobacco control programme.
Thus, it has been decided to just do away with non-cigarette varieties (non-FCV), as these are not highly remunerative and producers will not have much problem shifting to alternative crops. The financial compensation for helping farmers shift would be borne by the ministry of health, officials clarified.
