T.B. Jayachandra

MYSORE: Former Minister T.B. Jayachandra has urged Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Kamal Nath to convene a meeting of tobacco exporters to help bail out the tobacco growers of Mysore district who are reeling under the sudden collapse of prices.

Addressing a press conference in Mysore on Tuesday, Mr. Jayachandra said he had written to Mr. Kamal Nath asking him to convene a meeting of tobacco exporters and facilitate early purchase of tobacco from the farmers at a fair price.

Mr. Jayachandra's appeal comes at a time when thousands of tobacco growers in Periyapatna, K.R. Nagar, Hunsur and H.D. Kote taluks in Mysore district are refusing to sell their produce at the prevailing rates and incur a loss.

The price of tobacco, which used to hover at about Rs. 45 to Rs. 50 a kg till a few weeks after the auction season for 2006-07 began in the first week of September this year, collapsed to Rs. 20 a kg for all the three varieties of tobacco in the last few weeks.

With the ensuing byelection to the Assembly from the adjoining Chamundeshwari Assembly constituency keeping politicians preoccupied,farmers are forced to bide their time running the risk of allowing the quality of their tobacco stock to deteriorate. Out of the estimated 85 million kg of tobacco grown, about 20 million has been auction. More than 60 million kg of tobacco is yet to be auctioned.

Predicament

However, the farmers' predicament has been used by political parties to point accusing fingers at each other.

If the Congress party is blaming the State Government for the tobacco farmers' plight, the ruling Janata Dal (S) -Bharatiya Janata Party coalition is holding the Congress-led Union Government responsible for the problems faced by tobacco growers. Regretting the efforts being made by the Janata Dal (S) and BJP leaders to pin the responsibility for the farmers' plight on the Centre, Mr. Jayachandra said political parties were exploiting the situation to misguide farmers in view of the forthcoming bypoll.

Foreign buyers

However, he said foreign buyers had visited India and inspected the samples. "They are yet to place bulk orders with Indian exporters after which the price of tobacco is expected to improve," he added.

Mr. Jayachandra, who was Agriculture Minister and then a special representative of Karnataka in New Delhi during the S.M. Krishna's regime, has suggested to Mr. Kamal Nath to convene a meeting of Indian tobacco exporters.

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