In Focus
Tobacco consumption - in the form of smoking or chewing - has been linked with multiple serious health issues. But cultivation of tobacco also happens to be the source of livelihood for thousands of farmers, particularly in Mysuru and parts of adjoining Hassan district.
The flue-cured Virginia (FCV) variety of tobacco cultivated in Karnataka Light Soil in the region enjoys a good international market not only for its blending quality, but also for the low nicotine and tar content. A controlled commercial crop, tobacco is cultivated by an estimated 40,000 registered growers on the basis of the crop size fixed by the Tobacco Board every year.
The efforts by the Health and Family Welfare Department to reduce tobacco cultivation in keeping with India’s commitment to the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) are yet to yield the expected results though some progress has been made in the direction.
Over the last seven years, the area under tobacco cultivation in Mysuru is believed to have come down from 80,000 hectares to around 65,000 hectares with farmers making a switch to other alternative crops, according to sources in the Department of Agriculture and Horticulture in Mysuru.
At cross purposes
But, tobacco continues to remain one of the highly remunerative crops in the region. Even as the Departments of Agriculture and Horticulture strive to create awareness among tobacco farmers about alternative crops, the Tobacco Board – another arm of the Government – supports tobacco farmers by not only ensuring the availability of loans, fertilizers, pesticides, saplings as well as a market through its 11 auction platforms in the State, most of them situated in Mysuru district.
The Tobacco Board had fixed a crop size of 100 million kgs for Karnataka during 2022-23, but the yield was hit due to heavy rains last year, affecting 40 percent of the crop. Though only 60 million kgs were sold during the auction season last year, the average price commanded by tobacco last year was a handsome ₹228 per kg.
According to President of Federation of Flue Cured Virginia (FCV) Tobacco Growers’ of Karnataka Javare Gowda, the tobacco crop will be affected for the second successive year due to weather conditions. “While we lost 40 percent of the crop last year due to heavy rains, we will lose more than 20 percent this year due to late rains”, he said. Though the crop size is 100 million kgs for 2023-24, the yield will be only around 80 million kgs, he predicted.
Yet, the farmers are expecting a good price like last year when a dip in yield led to an increase in demand and consequently pushed the prices up.
Apart from the good market for this commodity in domestic and international markets, the officials from Department of Agriculture and Horticulture point out that the scale of finance for tobacco farmers is higher than other crops. “While tobacco farmers are given loans upto ₹ 1.5 lahks to ₹2 lahks for every acre by both private and nationalized banks, the farmers growing ragi, paddy, and sugarcane receive no more than ₹25,000, ₹35,000 and ₹60,000 per acre respectively. Banks also extend loans easily to farmers for the purchase of tractors,” pointed out an official from the Horticulture Department.
Some progress made
Yet, some progress has been made by convincing farmers to opt out of tobacco cultivation and take up crops like ginger, maize and vegetables.
A tobacco trader Ravandur Prakash recalled that the total output of tobacco from the region including the unauthorized produce was around 120 million kgs a couple of years ago. The yield last year came down to just 60 million kgs, primarily due to vagaries of nature. But, the fact remains that a large number of growers are also facing labour problems. Tobacco cultivation is labour-intensive and the high cost of labour had also discouraged some growers to abandon tobacco, he said.
About five years ago, a number of farmers shifted to ginger from tobacco in different parts of Mysuru district. But, an unexpected crash in the prices of ginger during the 2020-21 season sparked a return to tobacco cultivation two to three years ago.
Also, many farmers, who cultivated ginger, were unable to continue with ginger on the same soil for atleast two to three years, as it was considered to be a nutrient-exhaustive crop.
Meanwhile, Anti-Tobacco Forum (ATF) convenor Vasanthkumar Mysoremath, who has been creating awareness about the ailments arising out of tobacco consumption including cancer and cardiovascular diseases, however, said the soil knows how to rejuvenate itself.
‘Farmers being misled’
“Farmers are being misled that nothing can be grown on the soil once tobacco is grown. It has been proved false by the horticulture department”, he claimed. Many farmers have successfully shifted from tobacco to papaya, rose, vegetables and other horticultural crops.
He said the farmers should be encouraged to shift away from tobacco crops in stages. “First year, the farmers should shift to a non-tobacco crop on a portion of their land. The area under non-tobacco crops should be increased progressively every year,” he said.
Agreeing that it was difficult to ban tobacco cultivation overnight, Mr. Mysoremath said the Government should also provide support to the farmers switching to alternative crops by extending easy loan facilities, subsidies and assurance of prices.
As India was a signatory to the FCTC protocol, Mr. Mysoremath said all efforts should be made to bring down tobacco cultivation by at least 20% every year.
