Farmers’ body to launch stir demanding MSP for tobacco

VADODARA/ANAND: The

Bharatiya Kisan Union

(A) – a farmers’ body on Saturday announced ‘

Charotar Bachao Satyagrah

’ demanding that Gujarat government should declare minimum support price (MSP) for tobacco produced by farmers in the Charotar belt of central Gujarat.

After a ‘Khedut Panchayat’ organized by the

Gambhira

gram panchayat in Anklav taluka of Anand district, the farmers’ body said that it will launch a members registration drive to bring 50 lakh farmers on one platform to press for their demand MSP for tobacco produced by farmers and to abolish GST on tobacco.

The demand for MSP is gaining momentum after the auction on March 20 organised by the Gambhira farming co-operative, hailed as Asia’s only farm co-operative that cultivates high-quality tobacco, failed to find any takers. This happened for the first time in the 65 years history of the co-operative.

Traders did not lift the tobacco produced by its 290 farmer members of 12 villages. The co-operative alone counts for 5.80 lakh kg tobacco which was cultivated on 425 acres land that is owned and management by the mandali.

“We have resolved that the government should announce Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 as MSP range for tobacco produced by the Mahisagar co-operative and Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,500 as MSP for the rest of tobacco produced by farmers,” said Ravi Patel, president of the Gujarat unit of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (A).

“As per rules, MSP is declared for any crop where the farmers fail to get a market or where black marketing is prevalent. There is no reason why government should not declare MSP for tobacco,” he said.

The

Gujarat Tobacco Merchant and Growers Association

too has confirmed that unlike in the past when tobacco produced by farmers is pre-booked by traders by this time of the year, not a single kilogram of tobacco has been this year.

Tobacco this year has been cultivated on nearly 78,000 hectares land in the twin districts of Anand and

Kheda

which are popularly known as Charotar. The estimated production of the crop stands at nearly 29.22 crore kg.