PESHAWAR: Awami National Party (ANP) central president Senator Aimal Wali Khan has called for recognising tobacco as a regular crop and formulating an effective policy to address the problems faced by tobacco growers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
According to a statement issued here on Thursday, Senator Aimal said tobacco was the only agriculture produce in the country that was not recognised as a crop, calling the policy unfair to growers.
According to the senator, around 90 per cent of Virginia tobacco in Pakistan was produced in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Despite this, he said, the crop had not been given formal recognition.
He argued that recognising tobacco as a crop would directly benefit growers and the province, whereas under the existing system a significant portion of the economic benefits generated by the produce went to areas where cigarette factories were located.
Senator Aimal said tobacco was among the highest-taxed products in the country and that farmers and people of the province producing the bulk of the crop should receive an appropriate share of its economic benefits.He also criticised the tobacco procurement system, saying a large quantity of the crop was still lying with growers this year because of inadequate purchases. He claimed that some farmers hadevenbeenforcedtoburn their produce because they could not sell it.
He alleged that manufacturers purchased tobacco according to their own requirements and that growers faced difficulties during grading. Different prices for different grades, he said, further complicated the process for farmers.
The senator also criticised the agreement-based procurement system, saying it restricted growers to a particular mechanism. Farmers without agreements, he said, had to depend on middlemen, who purchased tobacco at lower rates and sold it at higher prices.
He also questioned the requirement for farmers to register through a mobile application, saying it did not reflect ground realities as many growers were unfamiliar with modern technology and mobile applications.
Senator Aimal called for removing unnecessary restrictions on buying and selling of tobacco and establishing a transparent mechanism through which growers could sell their produce directly.