NELLORE/ONGOLE: Lockdown-hit tobacco growers on Saturday stalled e-auctions at DC Palli in Nellore and blocked the Mumbai highway demanding remunerative price for their crop. They dumped tobacco bales on the road and set fire to them. Even though the Tobacco Board resumed e-auctions on May 11, the ryots expressed dissatisfaction over the price offered for their produce. Demanding that the state government intervene and ensure minimum support price, they stated that the buyers who took part in the auctions offered them low price.
A similar protest had taken place in Prakasam’s Vellampalli, Tangutur and Kondepi e-auction centres a week ago. The farmers protested against the lacklustre e-auctions, which resumed at the three of 12 centres on April 27. In DC Palli, the farmers only stopped agitating after Minister Mekapati Goutham Reddy’s Officer on Special Duty K Chennaiah pacified them and held discussions with officials at the auction centre. Reportedly, the buyers were offering `80 per kg for ‘A’ grade variety, which is half of its usual price.
In comparison to its cultivation in 7,468 hectares out of the permitted 9,210 hectares in Nellore district last year, this season the crop was grown in around 5,500-6,000 hectares due to dip in its sales across the country. The district is home to more than 3,700 tobacco farmers who mostly cultivate the FCV variety in 15 mandals. A couple of days ago, they took up the issue with Tobacco Board chairman Yadlapati Raghunatha Babu during his visit to DC Palli.
In 2018-19, the growers had suffered huge losses as 2.5 lakh kgs of the crop were marked low grade. As the board had permitted e-auctioning of 10.4 million kgs this year, they were hopeful of recovering their losses. However, the public health emergency and the sudden lockdown is preventing them from doing so.
“Taking advantage of the fact that stocks have remained unsold due to the lockdown, buyers are reducing the offering price for our produce,” said K Narayana swamy, a ryot from Marripadu.
Meanwhile, Black Soil Tobacco Farmers’ Association in Prakasam took an unanimous decision on May 5 to observe ‘crop holiday’ from the next season. Union leaders met the board’s Ongole manager to inform him the same, and demanded that the interest for their crop loans be relaxed for the next five years.
On Saturday, a total of 2,525 of the total 3,140 bales were purchased from the six centres in Prakasam, with the average price ranging between `119.65 and `139.45 per kg, which was very low compared to the highest and average bidding of `170 per kg and `148 per kg on the day when e-auctioning resumed.