Gujarat’s tobacco acreage up by 116% in 19 years

In Gujarat which has the ignominy of being known as the oral cancer capital of India farmers in North and Central Gujarat are raking in the moolah from tobacco.

Tobacco was sown on 63,800 hectares in 2004, and this number has risen to 1.38 lakh hectares for the 2023 winter crop, a 116% increase.

Gujarat accounts for 48% of the country’s total tobacco production of 8 lakh tonnes.

Experts say there are many factors for this, tobacco is a cash crop and keeps away wild animals such as nilgai and wild boar which may graze on and destroy food crops.

The greater availability of water has also increased tobacco acreage.

According to figures from the agriculture department, the acreage sown with tobacco was 68,200 hectares in 2003-04, and rose to 92,900 hectares in 2013-14 and to 1.38 lakh hectares as of January 2023.

The figures show that till 2013-14, about 95% of tobacco was grown in the Charotar region — Anand, Kheda and Vadodara districts.

However, in 2013-14, it started to be grown in North Gujarat, which now accounts for 30% of tobacco acreage, mainly in the districts of Mehsana, Banaskantha, Patan and Sabarkantha. In Central Gujarat, 96% of the area sown with tobacco is in Kheda and Anand districts.

Bhikhu Patel, president of the Gujarat Tobacco Merchant (Farmers) Association, says tobacco cultivation in Gujarat is rising because the crop never fails and doesn’t need pesticides as tobacco itself is a natural pesticide.

While Anand and Kheda dominated earlier, Banaskantha, Sabarkantha and Mehsana are fast catching up. The work of the Tobacco Research Institute in Kheda is also helping farmers.