Andhra Pradesh - Guntur   

Tobacco Board nets Rs. 20 cr. in penalty

Ramesh Susarla

Meeting to fix Virginia crop size on July 28

GUNTUR: The Tobacco Board has netted about Rs.20 crore in the form of monetary penalties on growers for producing more than the authorised quantum for the auction season ending July 2007, but that was not deterrent enough to force growers to limit crop size to registered levels.

Reducing in-put costs, lack of value addition, and improving efficiency of barns, quality of leaves offered for auction will be some of the issues to be taken up during a preparatory meeting for deciding next year’s crop size in the Tobacco Board with growers on Wednesday. The production committee meeting of the board is scheduled for July 28 at Hyderabad to fix the Andhra Pradesh Virginia tobacco crop size.

While the authorised crop size fixed last year was 145.56 million k.g, the total quantity auctioned on the 21 platforms in Andhra Pradesh during current auction season was 169.02 million k.g The total auctioned quantity was expected to cross 172 million k.g when the auctions officially close on July 25 with only some scrap leftover to be disposed by month-end. The average price offered per kg went up by Rs.1.13 though the crop size grew phenomenally from 145.36 million k.g last season to 172 million k.g this season.

At a time when Tobacco Board is hard pressed to curb the unauthorised crop and restrict production to 150 million k.g, the Virginia Tobacco Growers’ Association is demanding distributing the penalty amount among the farmers, who had not flouted the norms. About 4,500 growers out of 42,000 in A.P. had paid the penalty of Rs.2 per k.g and an additional 15 per cent of auction value.

This penalty works out to about Rs.9 per k.g but the profit margin for the farmers even after that was encouraging enough to grow additional volumes and this trend could increase in Prakasam district with many farmers, who had migrated to Bengal Gram ended up in losses this year with 11 lakh quintals export quality stock lying with them due to sharp decline in price from Rs.4,000 a quintal to Rs.2,300. The total area under that was likely to come under tobacco was estimated at 3.5 lakh acres.

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