Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has asked the Tobacco Board to interact with farmers and increase awareness among them about not to indulge in excessive borrowing from money lenders.
"The minister instructed the Tobacco Board to take all measures so that the crop should be restricted to 120 million kg as notified by the Board and discourage the un-authorised crop," an official statement said today.
The Tobacco Board has fixed a target of 120 million kg for Andhra Pradesh for the crop season 2015-16.
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The instruction comes in the wake of reports of farmer suicides due to crop failure and indebtedness.
A total of 44,958 growers are registered with the Board for 39,220 barns. A total of 33,163 hectares was planted under tobacco, it said.
It said the board has taken all the measures to provide necessary inputs to tobacco farmers for the current 2015-16 season.
Board has supplied 14,471 tonnes of fertiliser to the farmers in Andhra Pradesh.
"Board is also focusing on improving the quality and productivity of tobacco by implementing good agricultural practices through educating the farmers to avoid reoccurrence of marketing problems," it added.
Sitharaman also reviewed the recently concluded 2015 Andhra Pradesh (AP) auctions for sale of FCV tobacco.
It was noted that a quantity of 190.05 million kg was sold as against of a target of 172 million kg and an estimated production of 193.27 million kg. The average price realised this season was Rs 93.07 per kg.
"2014-15 AP auctions were prolonged upto November 2015 because of difficult market conditions on account of subdued demand for tobacco and because of production of more of low grade tobacco due to abnormal weather conditions and outbreak of tobacco root parasite 'Orabanche'," it said.
The farmers faced many difficulties in the form of low prices for their produce and liquidity problems, it said.
"With all the efforts of central and state government, the Board could liquidate the entire tobacco of 190.05 million kg produced by farmers in AP during 2014-15 crop season," it said.
The minister also reviewed the ongoing tobacco auctions in Karnataka. The auctions for sale of 2015-16 crop are commenced on October 7.
"After 36 days of auctions, a quantity of 19 million kg was sold at average price of Rs 137.28 per kg i.E. Up by Rs 20 per kg or 17 per cent over last year.
"Though the farmers are realising good prices, the rejections in auctions are around 30 per cent," it added.
According to Arora, tobacco manufacturers were creating
hurdles in the way of Delhi government's efforts to tackle the menace of chewable tobacco products like gutkha, khaini and zarda.
"Moreover, this notification also needs to be repeated on yearly basis. Hence is not a permanent solution. The permanent solution lies in the modification of the definition of Food by introducing some provisions in the central Food Safety Act," Arora said.
Provisions to section 3(j) of Food Safety and Standards Act 2006 clearly states that the Central Government may declare, by notification in the Official Gazette, any other article as food for the purposes of this Act having regards to its use, nature, substance or quality.
As per the Act, food means any substance, whether processed, partially processed or unprocessed, which is intended for human consumption and includes primary food genetically modified or engineered food or food containing such ingredients.
It also includes, infant food, packaged drinking water, alcoholic drink, chewing gum, and any substance, including water used in the food during its manufacture, preparation or treatment but excludes animal feed, live animals unless they are prepared or processed for placing on the market for human consumption, plants, prior to harvesting, drugs and medicinal products, cosmetics, narcotic or psychotropic substances.
