31 May 2011
By Radheshyam Jadhav
Pune, India
Today is World no Tobacco Day
Maharashtra could become the first state in the country to root out tobacco cultivation if the state agriculture department succeeds in persuading farmers from Sangli and Kolhapur – the tobacco hub of the state – to opt for alternative crops.
India is a signatory to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) sponsored by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and is under obligation to reduce tobacco cultivation in the country by 2020. Maharashtra could pave the way in eliminating tobacco cultivation as the area under cultivation is small compared to other tobacco-growing states. Andhra Pradesh,Gujarat,Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh together account for over 90% of the total tobacco production in the country.
The Central Tobacco Research Institute (CTRI) in Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh,estimates that about six million farmers and 20 million farm labourers are engaged in tobacco farming spread over 15 states. Political lobbyists supporting the tobacco industry are harping on the rehabilitation of farmers and labourers, putting a question mark on eliminating tobacco cultivation. According to the statistics department of the Maharashtra agriculture department, the state has 1,950 hectares of land under tobacco cultivation and majority of the cultivation is concentrated in the upper Krishna basin in Kolhapur and Sangli districts. Most of the tobacco grown in these two districts is ‘bidi’tobacco,while some areas, like Gadchiroli, grow ‘Flue Cured Virginia’ (FCV) tobacco used for cigarettes.
"In Maharashtra, the number of farmers cultivating tobacco is relatively small. Efforts are being made to introduce them to alternative crops. It is not an easy task to convince farmers to stop traditional tobacco cultivation. We will try our best,"said state agriculture commissioner Prabhakar Deshmukh.
As per state agriculture department figures for 2009-10, Kolhapur district has 1,500 hectares under tobacco cultivation, while Sangli has 450 hectares.The annual tobacco production in the state is over 2,200 tonnes. "There are other areas in the state where marginal tobacco cultivation takes place," said Girish Kulkarni,technical officer with the department.
The CTRI report – ‘Vision 2025’ – states that tobacco is an important cash crop grown in 0.4 million hectares in the country, accounting for 0.27% of the net cultivated area.In the global scenario,Indian tobacco occupies 10% of the area and 9% of the total production. With an annual production of 700 million kg, India ranks third in the world after China and Brazil.
"We are ready to grow other crops. But the government should help us in this regard. We have been cultivating tobacco for years and have mastered the technique. How can we suddenly shift to other crops?" asked Shrikant Belekar, a tobacco grower who admits that tobacco farming was a subsidiary activity to a majority of farmers holding marginal pieces of land – they had to take up parttime work to support the family. The World Health Organisation paper on tobacco and poverty explains the plight of tobacco growers and the problems related to tobacco farming around the world. It says, for decades, the tobacco industry has encouraged countries and families to grow tobacco, claiming that it will bring them prosperity.
"For many households, the reality has been quite different. All over the world,and especially in developing countries, the expansion of tobacco farming, encouraged and in some cases financed by major cigarette companies, has created a situation where more and more farmers are competing to sell tobacco to companies at increasingly lower prices. While some large-scale tobacco farmers have undoubtedly become wealthy,many are barely making a living, producing a crop that is labour and input intensive, bringing with it a host of health and environmental dangers – from pesticide exposure to nicotine poisoning. The use of child labour in the tobacco fields is a common practice in many countries. Among poor families who depend on tobacco, children work on tobacco farms or factories from a very early age, missing out on educational opportunities that could help lift them out of poverty," the report states.
"Considering the impact of tobacco on health, it is necessary to weed out the crop.The central and state governments should take initiative in this regard and provide incentives to farmers,"says agriculture scientist Budhajirao Mulik."My ancestors cultivated tobacco for years over six acres of land. I convinced my family members to shift to alternative crops. First we went for cotton and then to sugarcane. It is possible to root out tobacco cultivation from Maharashtra as the number of tobacco cultivators is marginal in the state," added Mulik.
MP Raju Shetty of Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS), who represents the Hatkanangle constituency in Kolhapur,said:"In future more and more restrictions will be put on tobacco products and hence it is time for farmers to shift to other crops. Tobacco yields higher net returns than other cash crops. There are crops like banana that provide similar incomes,but these crops will not remain remunerative if tobacco continues to get more returns." He added that the SSS is in continuous talks with farmers in this regard.
Socio-economic Reasons
Field studies carried out by the National Council of Applied Economic Research and by the Centre for Multi-disciplinary Development Research showed a number of major socio-economic factors encouraging tobacco cultivation
- Richer farmers tend to prefer tobacco to other crops
- Small-scale farmers take to tobacco cultivation as something inevitable in the absence of a suitable alternative
- Tobacco as a crop gives superior net economic returns compared to alternative crops
- Tobacco is preferred due to its drought resistance and suitability for growing under rain-fed conditions
- A widespread belief prevails among farmers, especially in ‘bidi’ growing areas, that no other crops should be grown in the same land where tobacco is cultivated as it will lower the quality of subsequent crops. However, this is contrary to scientific recommendation that tobacco should be grown in alternate years
- The practice of growing tobacco every year is reinforced by ‘bidi’ manufacturers through their agents, who may refuse to purchase tobacco if any other crop has been grown on the same plot
- A well organised marketing system for FCV tobacco through the tobacco board assures prompt payment to farmers, which is not the case for many other crops
- Farmers are reluctant to give up tobacco cultivation because of heavy investment in irrigation equipment and barns TOBACCO USE IN INDIA
- According to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS), 2010, 35% of adults in India use tobacco in some form or the other. Among them, 21% use smokeless tobacco, 9% smoke, while 5% smoke as well as use smokeless tobacco. The estimated number of tobacco users in India is 274.9 million
- As per the ‘Report on Tobacco Control in India, 2004’, an estimated number of eight to nine lakh people die every year in India due to diseases caused by consumption of tobacco products
- The Government of India has enacted ‘The Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003’ (COTPA) to protect citizens from involuntary exposure to tobacco smoke and to discourage consumption of cigarettes and other tobacco products
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