Agriculture Minister Kinjarapu Atchannaidu urged the Tobacco Board to expedite the procurement of Flue-Cured Virginia (FCV) tobacco in Andhra Pradesh.
The move aims to address rising market concerns and financial distress among tobacco farmers in the Vijayawada region. By accelerating the buying process, the government hopes to stabilize income for growers facing economic instability.
Atchannaidu said the Tobacco Board must ensure that procurement happens swiftly to prevent crop degradation and financial loss. He said the board should secure higher, more remunerative prices to protect the livelihoods of those producing the crop.
According to current data, the daily procurement volume for FCV tobacco stands at 8.5 lakh kg [1]. The minister said that increasing the speed of these transactions is critical to maintaining the flow of the market.
Regarding pricing, the maximum price offered to farmers is ₹250 per kg [1]. The government is pushing for these rates to be consistently met, and potentially improved, to ensure that farmers receive a fair return on their investment.
Tobacco remains a significant agricultural output for the region, but fluctuations in procurement speed and pricing often lead to volatility in rural incomes. The call for faster action is intended to minimize the gap between harvest and payment—a period where farmers are most vulnerable to debt.
Officials from the Tobacco Board are expected to review the current procurement infrastructure to identify bottlenecks. The goal is to streamline the logistics of transporting and weighing the tobacco to meet the daily targets more efficiently.
“The daily procurement volume for FCV tobacco stands at 8.5 lakh kg.”
This directive reflects the regional government's effort to mitigate agrarian distress by intervening in the supply chain. By pressuring the Tobacco Board to maintain a high daily procurement volume and a price ceiling of ₹250 per kg, the state is attempting to prevent a price collapse that could lead to widespread farmer insolvency in the Vijayawada region.
