Tobacco farmers set to end honeymoon with ginger cultivation

They had suffered huge losses due to crash in ginger prices

Over the last three to four years, tobacco crop had been yielding thousands of hectares of land across Mysuru district for ginger cultivation. But, the steep crash in prices of ginger last year has sparked a return of the farmers to tobacco cultivation this year. The area under tobacco cultivation in the district had come down from 85,000 hectares about four years ago to 64,000 hectares last year, said officials in the Agriculture Department citing the migration of tobacco farmers largely to ginger and maize and other crops to a smaller extent. “A lot of farmers had suffered huge losses due to crash in ginger prices. They are all returning to tobacco cultivation this year. Many of them have already started plantation”, claimed Javare Gowda, President of Federation of VFC Tobacco Growers Associations of Karnataka.