Vijayawada: YSRCP President YS Jagan demanded the coalition Government on behalf of tobacco farmers to procure tobacco through Markfed, failing which farmers will further suffer.

On the request of the tobacco farmers YS Jagan visited Devarapally in East Godavari district on Wednesday to listen their problems and the farmers died due to the price of tobacco. Speaking to the media persons he said that tobacco farmers are in deep distress as the cultivation cost has gone up manifold on one hand and the procurement prices have been falling.

The companies forming a syndicate and manipulating market dynamics, the average price of the tobacco has been drastically falling, he said. The farmers who were assured by the Tobacco Board of procurement have reneged on their promise and the traders formed a cartel to keep the prices low, forcing the farmers to opt for distress sales, he added.

YS Jagan said that the coalition Government has procured only 20% of the crop is procured so far. The Government is hand in glove with the syndicate and though the Board has encouraged the farmers to go for tobacco farming assuring procurement, but the board has gone back on its word, he added.

He stated that during the YSRCP’s term in 2023-24 the average price of tobacco was Rs 289 per kg and in 27 months after the coalition Government led by the TDP assumed office, it has fallen to Rs 220. Farmers said that they were selling tobacco at even Rs 170 per kg, he said.

We had a robust mechanism to safeguard the interest of farmers and made Markfed a buyer to increase competition and keep the prices higher. This apart we have given Rs 1 lakh zero per cent interest loans to farmers, he said. YS Jagan alleged that the tobacco farmers are not getting MSP for the cultivation of tobacco, but the cultivation cost is going up. He said that CM Chandrababu has done away with the zero per cent interest and the farmers’ plight is further aggravated; now farmers are losing at least Rs 70 per kg. A tobacco farmer Venkateswar Rao has committed suicide unable to bear the loss and there is no response from the Government, no public representative had come to console his family, he added.