Alternative crops reduced to ‘next best option’

To help India meet its ‘obligation’ to reduce leaf tobacco growing by 50 percent by 2020, the Tobacco Board in the state of Karnataka has decided to encourage tobacco farmers to switch to the “next best option”, according to a story by Laiqh A. Khan for the Hindu, relayed by the TMA.

India’s ‘obligation’ is seen as following from its ratification of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, but it was previously described as being linked to finding for displaced tobacco farmers alternative activities that were equivalent economically.

Now the bar seems to have been lowered to the ‘next best option’, which, for example, are, in dryland areas, cotton, maize and green chillies, and, in irrigated areas, ginger.

The board acknowledges that convincing the growers will be an uphill task given that the average farmer price for leaf has risen to Rs134.57 (US$ 1.90) per kg this season, up from Rs107.49 (US$ 1.60) per kg during the 2014-15 season.

“We will discourage farmers from growing any tobacco crop in irrigated areas … [as it] is considered a saline variety that does not command a good price in the market,” a board official said.

But farmers are likely to be reluctant to grow ginger. Javare Gowda, president of the Flue Cured Virginia Tobacco Growers’ Federation of Karnataka, said there was no alternative to tobacco. Many farmers who had switched to ginger “burnt their hands,” he said, while those who tried other alternatives “lost their money”.