TOBACCO FARMERS' DEMAND

Demand to buy tobacco with supportive price

The tobacco growers of different areas of Cooch Behar district came out with a demand to buy their produce with proper and supportive price. They started believing that a section of unscrupulous tobacco merchants have pulling down the price of tobacco for profiteering.

It may be recalled here that some aggrieved tobacco growers had set fire to their produces that they brought for sell at the Giridhari market of Sitai block in Dinhata on last Friday. The matter drew attention of different quarters in the district.

A spokesman of the Sara Bharat Krishak O Kshetmazur Sangathan said the anger of the farmers is natural as the price of tobacco came down abnormally. He demanded the state government to buy the tobacco from the growers at a proper and supportive price. They are also getting ready to organise a movement to protect the interest of the farmers, he said.

It was learnt that the Cooch Behar district agriculture officer Mr Arun Ray recently visited different areas of Dinhata and Sitai to study the situation. He smelled a dishonest plan hatched by a section of tobacco merchants in bringing down the price of the crop. On the otherhand, a tobacco merchant explained that they had to suffer a huge loss during selling off the tobacco they bought last year. This year the demand for tobacco is thin at factories in Kolkata, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh, he added. An aged tobacco grower of Sitai said it costs about Rs 8,000 to cultivate tobacco at a one-bigha land. The yield is not as much by which one can get some profit. It is hard to earn anything by selling tobacco at a price ranging from Rs 600 to Rs 1,100 he clarified.      

Tobacco is one of the main cash crops of Cooch Behar district. It is cultivated mainly at areas in Dinhata, Sitai, Mekhliganj and Mathabhanga. This year, low price of it at markets turned the growers aggrieved.