Chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has requested the Centre to allow tobacco growers to sell excess stock grown during 2022-23 crop season without levying penalty.He has 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.
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.
The CM in his letter 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.
The chief minister said that the Centre had already removed penalty on tobacco growers of Karnataka and similar relief should be granted in AP as well.
