Tobacco Board, which fixes market quota, has taken an in-principle decision to hike the quota of Karnataka tobacco farmers to 30 million kgs.

Earlier the Board had fixed a quota of 25 million kgs for the current season. There was heavy pressure on the Board and the Union Commerce Ministry to revise the quota from the growers in the state. The season for Karnataka growers would commence by the end of this month.

Mr S Chowdeaiah, member of the Tobacco Board said in-principle decision to hike the quota to 30 million was taken during the two-day meeting of the Board held in Guntur in Andhra Pradesh on October 12 & 13. Senior officials from the Union ministry of commerce were also present during the meeting.

Mr Chowdeaiah was addressing a meeting organised by the Tobacco Institute of India (TII) here on Monday to present tobacco farmers awards to tobacco growers in Karnataka.

Meanwhile, Karnataka Tobacco Growers Forum wanted the quota to be raised to 35 million. The Board had declared a 50 per cent crop holiday for Karnataka and 100 per cent for Andhra Pradesh following over production. But growers in Karnataka oppose the crop holiday decision as they felt that a good chunk of the Karnataka tobacco accounts for the export. We cannot afford to lose the export market by crop-holiday because other producing countries would take control of our market, says president Karnataka Tobacco Growers Forum SM Anantharamu.

In Karnataka area under tobacco has increased by one and half times, from 45,000 hectares in 1956-57 to 71,000 hectares in 1996-97. The production has gone up to 58 million kgs from 18 million kgs in the same period.

The Forum also wanted the Centre to drastically change the current practice of deciding the Minimum Support Price for tobacco. There is no relationship between MSP and the production cost, says the Forum.

The MSP for thee best quality tobacco hovers around Rs 22 per kg while the production cost would be in the range of Rs 40 to 45 per kg, says Anantharamu. The MSP should be Rs 50, he said. Speaking on the occasion the minister of state for finance M Shivanna said the state government would give due consideration to the demands of the tobacco growers.