ONGOLE: Tobacco farmers of Prakasam district are worried about spurt in Covid-19 positive cases since they are getting low prices for their produce from buyers in the ongoing tobacco auctions. The buyers cite that there is a slump in international market due to the pandemic. The tobacco farmers have already staged several demonstrations in front of Podili, Ongole, Tangutur, Kandukur auction centres on this issue.
The farmers even stalled the auction procedure at a few centres complaining that the buyers are intentionally offering low prices to their produce. In this connection, the tobacco farmers took a decision that they will reduce the quantity of stocks to be brought to the auction centres until they get a better price.
“We demand the Tobacco Board to see that the buyers offer a suitable minimum support price (MSP) to our product. If the State government intervenes in the auction just like it did in the previous year, we will get a better prices for our product,” an axious Srinivasa Reddy, a farmer from Maddipadu mandal, said.
The farmers request the government to look in to this matter and order the MARKFED to be part of the purchases, he added.This season, the Tobacco Board has announced that 70 million kg will be purchased from the farmers of regions of Southern Black Soils (SBS) and Southern Light Soils (SLS) of the district.
Till Tuesday, the tobacco buyers purchased a total of 15 million kg stocks from the tobacco farmers in all nine tobacco auctions centres of the Prakasam district and two auction centres (DC Palli and Kaligiri) in Nellore district under the jurisdiction of the Prakasam SBS/ SLS regions.
Since March 15, the tobacco purchasers offered the farmers Rs 180 per kg for the tobacco stocks of F-1 grade quality for which the tobacco farmers in Karnataka got Rs 280 per kg in the recent auctions. Also, the farmers are getting only Rs 120 per kg and Rs 130 kg only for the F-3 and MF-3 grade quality stocks.
A team of tobacco farmers recently held discussions with the Tobacco Board, Ongole SBS regional manager R Srinivasulu Nayudu and requested him to see that their tobacco produce will get good price from the buyers. Even though the situation is still the same and the tobacco farmers. In this regard, the farmers have decided not to bring more stock for sale, until the prices don’t increase.