No tobacco farming to be new govt mantra

No tobacco farming to be new govt mantra

FPJ BureauUpdated: Saturday, June 01, 2019, 10:40 AM IST
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Health Minister Harsh Vardhan mounts a fresh drive to strike at the very root of smoking, tell farmers not to grow tobacco

NEW DELHI : Enthused by heavy excise duty slapped on cigarettes, gutka, chewing tobacco and pan masala in the Union Budget at his instance to make over 3 million Indians, mostly young, quit the dangerous habit of using them, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Saturday mounted a new campaign to wean away the farmers from the tobacco cultivation.

Admitting that it is difficult for the hapless, addicted consumers to give up the smoking habit by simply taxing them as they may not be deterred by high prices, he said he was launching this campaign as part of pincer-like multi-disciplinary drive to save thousands of lives.

“It is a myth that farmers in tobacco growing regions would be impoverished if the government succeeds in getting people off the smoking habit.

Rather we have evidence that they would earn better incomes by growing alternative crops and free themselves from the clutches of money lenders,” he said in a statement.

He alleged unscrupulous practices by the tobacco companies to woo farmers “They are giving lucrative terms to farmers in some regions, even full advances against estimated crop production, to ensure they do not look to alternatives. I will take up this issue at the Central Council of Health for persuading state health ministers to counter this practice,” he said.

Dr Vardhan offered in support of the alternative crops the results of the scientific research conducted by reputed institutions to prove unambiguously the viable alternatives to tobacco cultivation.

“We (Health Ministry) have carried out pilot projects on alternative cropping systems to tobacco which we are willing to share with the states whose economies are based on tobacco,” he said, asserting that farmers will get better incomes from cultivating sugarcane, a variety of vegetables, pepper, fruits, mustard, etc. on the lands presently taken up by tobacco crops.

He was referring to a Health Ministry project of Rs 2.17 crore sanctioned to the Central Tobacco Research Institute (CTRI), Rajahmundhry, to carry out a pilot project on alternative cropping systems to tobacco. The project was carried out at Nandyal (Seemandhra), Anand and Dharmaj (Gujarat), Nipani (Karnataka), Vedasandur (Tamil Nadu) and Dinhata (West Bengal). The initiative was taken after consultation with Indian Council of Agricultural Research ICAR) and CTRI. “There may be some transitional problems, but with political will these could easily be overcome.

The additional earning to the exchequer (from excise duty) is significant but the economic cost of smoking is far greater. We can only quantify the state’s expenditure on cancers and TB which runs into billions of dollars annually, but what about the young lives snuffed out prematurely? That too is a blow to the economy as we are losing a valuable resource to tobacco,” Dr Vardhan said.

Debunking the notion that a decline in smokin would impoverish tobacco growers and cause losses in revenue to the governments of states where tobacco is grown, he said: “There are people who argue that India earns more than $ 500 million per year through tobacco exports. To them I say, look at the net economic cost. WHO has estimated that in India it amounts to $ 1.7 billion. This cannot be tolerated any longer.”

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