Centre Approves One-Time Interest-Free Loans to Michaung Cyclone-Hit Tobacco Growers of AP

The Michaung cyclone that lashed Andhra Pradesh last December has hard-hit the tobacco growers of the state. This has prompted the Centre to come up with an interest-free loan for the growers for the crop season of 2023-24.

New Delhi : The central government has approved an interest-free loan to the Flue Cured Virginia (FCV) tobacco growers of Andhra Pradesh who have faced crop loss due to the Michaung cyclone that hard hit the state last December.

From December 3rd to 5th December last year, the Michaung cyclone caused heavy rains in Andhra Pradesh. The FCV tobacco crop grown in Andhra Pradesh covering Eluru, East Godavari, Kakinada, Prakasam, Nellore, Bapatla, Palnadu, and Guntur districts had been severely affected due to these cyclonic rains.

The estimated area planted in the current crop season in Andhra Pradesh was 75,355 hectares. Of that, 14,730 hectares, which comes to around 20% of the total planted area have been affected due to these heavy rains. The FCV tobacco crop has been impacted by washing out of crops, drowning of standing crops, water logging, and resultant wilting of standing crops.

Given the hardships faced by FCV Tobacco growers in Andhra Pradesh, the Centre has approved a Rs 10,000 interest-free loan from the Grower Welfare Fund of Tobacco Board to the grower members of the fund, whose crops were damaged due to the Michaung Cyclonic rains in Andhra Pradesh. This is a one-time interest-free loan for Andhra Pradesh crop season 2023-24 only. This interest-free loan amount will be recovered from the respective tobacco growers auction sale proceeds of the 2023-24 Andhra Pradesh crop season.

FCV tobacco is mainly produced in India in 2 states, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Currently, crop season is going in Andhra Pradesh, which has 42,915 FCV tobacco growers and auctions are going on in Karnataka which has 39,552 FCV tobacco growers.

To date, around 85.12 M. kg FCV tobacco has already been marketed by the Board through its e-auction platforms in Karnataka. There is a jump of 12.49% in the average price received by tobacco growers - from Rs 228.01 per kg last year to Rs 256.48 per kg in the current year.

The Karnataka government has declared drought in all except two FCV tobacco-growing taluks. This has affected the livelihood of FCV tobacco growers. Due to this, the central government has decided to permit the sale of FCV Tobacco on the Tobacco Board's auction platform after waiving off the penalty on the sale of excess production of registered growers and unauthorized production of unregistered growers for Karnataka crop season 2023-24 only.

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