Health Ministry funds project to find alternative crops for bidi, chewing tobacco

22 January 2009

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has sanctioned Rs2.17 crore to Central Tobacco Research Institute (CTRI), Rajahmundhry, to undertake a pilot project on ''Alternative cropping system to bidi and chewing tobacco,'' in a bid to help tobacco farmers grow alternate profitable crops to reduce tobacco grown in the country.

The pilot project will take place at Nandyal (A.P.), Anand (Gujarat), Dharmaj (Gujarat), Nipani (Karnataka), Vedasandur (Tamil Nadu) and Dinhata (West Bengal).

The initiative was taken after consultation with Indian Council of Agriculture of Research and Central Tobacco Research Institute, Rajahmundhry.

The pilot project is aimed to establish viable, sustainable and alternatives to bidi/chewing tobacco crops. This pilot will be for a period of 3 years in different agro-ecological sub-regions.

Sugarcane, vegetables, garlic, maize, fruits, pepper, cotton, sweet potato are some of the alternative crops proposed to be cultivated by the tobacco growing farmers.

In India, earlier studies have found that turmeric, onion, potato, garlic, mustard, sugarcane are also good alternative crops to chewing tobacco crop. Cotton, maize, sunflower, groundnut, soyabean, chilies are good alternatives to bidi tobacco crops.
 
The pilot project will also look at challenges that the farmers are likely to face during the process of transition including issues of market support; agriculture research among others.