CM seeks relief to tobacco growers of AP like Karnataka

Vijayawada: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has written a letter to Union Commerce Minister Piysuh Goyal, seeking permission for sale of excess Flue Cured Virginia (FCV) tobacco produced by the tobacco growers in AP, without penalty.

The CM explained that the recent Mandous cyclone caused huge damage to tobacco farms, forcing the farmers to do replanting, which increase the farm expenditure.

“Tobacco is one of the important commercial crops grown in Andhra Pradesh. FCV Tobacco Crop is grown under the Southern Light Soil (SLS) and Southern Black Soil (SBS) regions of Prakasam, SPSR Nellore, Bapatla, Palnadu, Guntur and Northern Light Soil (NLS) in West & East Godavari districts,” the CM stated in the letter.

The Mandous cyclonic storm and rain majorly affected the crop. More than half of the 53,000 hectares was severely damaged, due to which the farmers replanted the crop, it was noted.

This also forced the farmers to irrigate the crop during the season to save the crop. The cost of production increased heavily due to the replanting, irrigation and increased labour costs, he said.

Under the circumstances, the farmers are not in a position to pay the penalties to the tobacco board on excess tobacco – that’s tobacco produced beyond the authorised quantity.

Jagan Mohan Reddy noted that the Union Commerce has authorised the tobacco board in Guntur to allow the sale of excess FCV Tobacco produced by the registered growers and unauthorised FCV Tobacco produced by the unregistered growers in Karnataka without any penalty during the 2022-23 crop season.

In view of these, the CM requested the Centre to issue necessary orders to the tobacco board, Guntur, to allow the sale of excess FCV Tobacco produced by the registered growers without any penalty in SBS, SLS and NLS regions of Andhra Pradesh exclusively for the 2022-23 crop season.

M.V.S. Nagi Reddy, vice-chairman, AP state agriculture mission, said CM Jagan Mohan Reddy swiftly responded to the problem of tobacco farmers and wrote a letter to Union minister Piyush Goel.