Summary Survey on Cost of Production for tobacco is being conducted by Pakistan Tobacco Board.
PTB will be completed in third week of November, 2012 which would be followed by the announcement of Minimum Indicative Price (MIP) of the tobacco crop for the year 2013.
This is a comprehensive exercise involving various factors which affect the cost of the crop.
Sources said that COP is a mandatory and key function of PTB, which usually starts in September and culminates in the announcement of MIP in October/November every year.
Thereby, PTB enables the growers to make a choice at the most appropriate time either to sow tobacco or wheat in the coming year.
Recalling the resentments shown by some circles over the COP and MIP of year 2012, it is imperative that a well thought out strategy is chalked out at the outset to minimize any potential criticism of the survey in future. Furthermore, the entire process of COP survey has been made more transparent to allay the resentments of the critics.
Sources lamented that the Commissioner Minor Crop, who announced the MIP of Rs.117/Kg in the Price and Grade Revision Committee of the Board for 2012, created complications for PTB and the Ministry of Commerce subsequently by floating a superfluous MIP of Rs.183/Kg.
The Commissioner Minor Crops was unable to support his numbers and only created misunderstanding among the farming community.
It was further added that with a view to make the COP survey more representative of the farming community, the number of tobacco growers to be interviewed during the survey would be increased from the previous year.
Keeping in mind all the transparency, Pakistan Tobacco Board invited different farmer associations including Kissan Board, Sarhad Chamber of Agriculture & Anjuman-i-Khashkaraan to participate in the ongoing exercise & check the transparency.
However few elements who purposely intend to sabotage the whole process tried to create the hurdles in the process from the very start.
During the COP survey, per hectare yield of tobacco for 2013 need to be worked out carefully & it should be in line with the inputs applied for working out realistic MIP in future, sources added.
It is learnt that all-out efforts to mislead the farmers are being made, by providing them the leaflets with high prices of crop inputs.
These activities if not stopped will spoil the purpose & spirit of the whole exercise.
However, the exercise is on in the area with full participation of farmer associations like Kissan Board, Sarhad Chamber of Agriculture & Anjuman-i-Kashtkaraan.
