An Editorial in Hindustan
Times ( 25 May ) reads :
“ Promote viable crop alternative to
tobacco “
Extracts :
·
Cigarettes account for just 11 % of tobacco use in India .
Bidis , chewing and smokeless tobacco constitute the rest
·
Tobacco is highly addictive and kills half of its users
·
One million of the seven million annual deaths worldwide
from tobacco-related disease occur in India
·
India is the world’s second
largest producer of tobacco with 60 % of its annual production of 800 million
kg , being exported
·
Domestic demand amounts to just 40 % of FCV ( Flue-Cured
Virginia ) cultivated in India, so the gains from improved health and lives
saved from shrinking domestic demand clearly outweighs losses to farmers
·
Increasing export of this
highly addictive crop is not an ethical option
·
The challenge then is to ensure that farmers have a viable
substitute for a tobacco crop
----------------------------------------------------------
The editorial does not suggest WHAT such alternate
viable crop could be
I suggest that the government goes out of its “ normal helping ways “ to
enable our tobacco-growing farmers to grow HERBS ( MEDICINAL PLANTS )
and SPICES, for which , India has :
·
Rich traditional knowledge ( read “ Charak Samhita “ )
·
The right kind of climate
·
Domain expertise in
processing for high “ value addition “ ( for exports ? )
I urge our well-established Ayurvedic
Industry to take a lead in this matter and form Farmers Cooperatives , along
the lines of AMUL
As for the Cigarette Industry is
concerned , the disruption can be mitigated by implementing my earlier
suggestion :
GoingUp in Smoke ? ( 18
Aug 2013 )
Can we expect Smt Harsimrat Kaur ( Minister for Food Processing ) , to adopt
this reform ?
How about growing “ herb
that heals “ rather than “ tobacco that kills “
?
27 May 2017
www.hemenparekh.in /
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