Constraints Faced by the Flue-Cured Virginia Tobacco Growers in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka

Yogesh H.C¹, S. K. Srivastava^2*

¹Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India.

²Department of Agricultural Economics G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India.

Corresponding Author E-mail: sks_pantnagar@yahoo.com

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.12944/CARJ.6.3.22

Abstract:

Tobacco is one of the important commercial crops of India and also called as “golden leaf”. It provides employment directly and indirectly to 38 millions of people. As a commercial crop, tobacco forms an important item in the Indian export basket. FCV tobacco accounts for around 85 per cent of total tobacco exports. Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka together have a share of 99 per cent of total FCV tobacco production in India. Due to less availability of labour, high cost of inputs and poor farm mechanization, resources may not utilize efficiently. Increasing productivity and thereby reducing costs will greatly enhance the competitiveness of tobacco industry both globally as well as in the domestic market. The present study has been conducted with reference to FCV tobacco; to identify the constraints faced by the farmers in the production of FCV tobacco. The Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka are purposively selected for the study as these states are major FCV tobacco growers in India. A total of 120 FCV tobacco growers of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka have been selected by multistage random sampling. The study reveals that untimely rainfall emerged as most severe constraint faced by the farmers in Andhra Pradesh whereas, scarcity of labour has been severe rank constraint for farmers in Karnataka. Though FCV tobacco cultivation in the study area gives high net returns to the farmers but the profit is sustainable if the farmers are provided with more labour, water availability and availability of firewood at low cost.

Keywords:

Barriers; Constraints; FCV Tobacco; Problems; Tobacco Board

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