Tobacco

Tobacco Board

Role Of Tobacco Board Tobacco Board In Production Of Exports

Role of Tobacco Board

Crop Fixation � VFC Tobacco

One of the prime duties of the Board is to ensure farmers get fair and remunerative returns for their Flue Cured Viginia tobacco.
Board, with a view to ensure this stated objective regulate production in tune with the changing demand patterns of the international markets, undertakes regulation of production of Virginia Flue Cured tobacco grown in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra.
Under the Tobacco Board Act, it is statutory obligation on the part of the farmers intending to grow Virginia tobacco, register with the Board and renew such registrations every year.
Board, taking into account the requirements for the domestic cigarette industry and requirements for the overall export trade, lays down the production policy.
Production quotas are fixed for each farmer based on the style of tobacco grown in the region and the demand indicated by the Trade/Industry.
Purchase of FCV Tobacco and Virginia Tobacco, at the primary level, is through "Auctions" conducted by the Tobacco Board.
Board acts as an auctioner and acquired the necessary infrastructure viz. Auction Halls, Ware houses etc., to orgnaise sales at 20 auction floors in A.P. and 8 in Karnataka.
Sale of Virginia tobacco by farmers or purchase of the same from farmers off the Auction Floors is prohibited and such transactions amount to contravention of the Tobacco Board Act.
Likewise, Virginia tobacco shall not be purchased from traders not registered with the Board as exporter of tobacco or dealer in Tobacco.

Top

Tobacco Board in The Promotion of Tobacco Exports

Some of the important export promotion measures taken up by the Board are enlisted hereunder.

Policy initiatives

Tobacco is included in the list of items eligible for export to Russia against Debt Repayment.
Indian Tobacco Sector is opened for foreign investment eg. investment by M/s. R.J. Reynolds-U.S.A.
Policy provisions exist for setting up 100% EOU's for cigarette exports with foreign equity upto 100% with prior approval of Government.
Minimum Export Prices are abolished freeing the export of tobacco from price restrictions.

Product specific measures - Quality upgradation

Through intensive extension programmes in the existing area.
Introduction of new and exotic varieties in association with Central Tobacco Research Institute, Indian Tobacco Corporation Ltd.
Enhancing production of quality exportable FCV tobaccos in Karnataka and Light soils of Andhra Pradesh.
Pursuing the trade, develop exportable Burley and Oriental tobaccos.
Subsidising construction of Burley curing barns in tribal areas.
Fumigating tobacco seed beds with a view to produce healthy seedlings and inturn quality leaf production.
Encourage development of FCV tobacco in new areas by trade and CTRI through subsidising construction of barns.
Studying production technology of competing countries to bring in improvements in our tobacco production technology.
Constant monitoring of pesticide residue levels in Indian tobacco and pursue control measures wherever necessary at farmer's level.

Enhancing Price Competitiveness

Yield Improvement

Arranging timely supply of critical inputs to the needy farmers viz. pure seed, fertilizers, coal, suckericides, etc., through financial tie-up arrangements with banks.
Educating the farmers on latest package of practices, conducting on farm tests to help enhance yield levels.
Popularising / introducing new and exotic high yielding varieties through CTRI & ITC Ltd.
Subsidising, the costs of sulphate of potash, sprinkler irrigation equipment, suckericides, pesticides etc. to the farmers.

Economy in curing cost

Barn roof insulation to achieve conservation of fuel. Subsidising barn insulation costs at farmers level.
Use of BRIQUETTES (made of Agri. Waste) as alternate barn fuel-an environment friendly measure – Board subsidises a part of the cost of briquettes supplied to farmers.
Subsidising transport costs of coal for supply to farmers in Karnataka.

Presentation and Packaging

Tobacco

Organise community grading centres for better sorting and presentation of tobacco on the acution floors.
Implementing plant position grading in light soils of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka so as to align our grading with international grading standards.

Tobacco Products

Bringing in improvement in packaging of products like bidi tobacco, Hookah Tobacco Paste with the help of Indian Institute of packaging.
Taking up project works in new products like cigars for improvement of packaging.
Communicating to the exporters the packaging regulations/stipulations of importing countries for different products, wherever available.

Image promotion for Tobacco and Tobacco products

Board participates in the exclusive international tobacco exhibitions.
Participates regularly in the select international exhibitons through Indian Trade Promotion Organisations.
Assists exporters in participation of overseas trade exhibitions and catalogue exhibitions through Indian Embassies.
Board releases advertisements in International Exclusive Tobacco Magazines highlighting merits of Indian Tobacco.
Highlights qualities of various types and styles of Indian tobacco by sending colour brochures in English.
German, Russian and French languages to the importing organisations in various countries.

Top

Tamilnadu

Tobacco

About Tobacco

History
Morphology

Tobacco Management

Services Overview

The key services offered by Ikisan are:

System study, design and development of IT enabled solutions and services for the agri sector.

Execution of rural IT enabled projects on BOT/BOOT/Turnkey basis.

Development, Customization and Deployment of Ikisan's IPR protected software applications.

Providing support services and best management practices for augmenting the marketing development efforts of the groups agricultural input companies (NFCL and NACL).

Development and Dissemination of best practice and information though a unique multi lingual knowledge website for the agri sector.

Some of the key customers/partners that benefit significantly from our work include are Electronics Corporation of India Ltd, State Agricultural Marketing Boards, Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Tamilnadu, Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, Motorola Mobility (GOOGLE) etc.

As highlighted earlier Ikisan provides significant support to the market development and marketing efforts of NFCL and NACL by providing best practices and information across the agricultural input value chain - weather, soil, seeds, fertilizers, water, pesticides, output prices etc. that have enabled the companies to develop deep customer relationships and in turn enable them to grow above market growth rates. Recently example in fertilizers includes the development of Customized Fertilizer Grades (for NFCL across India that are crop and location specific have not only reduced the current consumption of fertilizers of farmers but have significantly enhanced crop yields and farmer incomes) that are expected to add significant revenues to the company.

Currently, agriculture value chain is driven by technical expertise. However, there is a lack of adequate Management knowledge and skills amongst the professionals. Therefore, Ikisan and XLRI, Jamshedpur have jointly developed an Agri Business Management Program for Agri-professionals and students. Ikisan provides the domain expertise while XLRI provides pedagogy. This program is a combination of virtual learning and campus based module at XLRI, Jamshedpur. This program has been highly appreciated.

Intellectual Property Rights for many software applications such as Field Manager, Vyapar, Mandi, Quick Solutions Systems, Management Time Table, Agri Information System and Agrecommerz belong to Ikisan. A significant recent development in this area is the introduction of Weather Based Crop Insurance. This entails setting up of Automatic Weather Stations, which provide dynamic village-level data essential for settlement of weather based insurance claims.