Reps of farmers reject survey for fixing tobacco rate

MARDAN: Office-bearers of different associations of the farmers on Wednesday rejected the survey conducted for fixing the rate of tobacco.

Speaking at a meeting here, president Kissan Board Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Rizwanullah Rizwan, general secretary Abdul Samad Safi and other office-bearers from other districts and representatives of Aiwan-e-Zarat and Anjuman-e-Khastkaran asked the government to solve the tobacco growers’ problems in the province. “We reject the survey conducted by the Pakistan Tobacco Board in collaboration with the tobacco companies for fixing the rate of tobacco,” Rizwan said.

The tobacco growers asked the government to conduct the survey again and include farmers in the process. They added that government should review the current per kg tobacco rate and fix new rate and also increase per kg of tobacco rate.

They said that the so-called farmers’ organisations were protecting the interests of companies and capitalists and were part of the conspiracy against growers and agriculture of the province. They threatened to launch a protest campaign if government and tobacco board didn’t resolve their problems.