Guntur - Virginia tobacco auctions begin from Wednesday in Andhra Pradesh in three phases, according to Tobacco Board officials here.
In the first phase, auctions begin in the southern light soils of Nellore and Prakasam districts on Wednesday at Kaligiri and D.C Palli (Nellore district) and Podili and Kandukuru (Prakasam). In the second phase, auctions will begin in West Godavari (northern light soils) and Guntur and Krishna (southern black soils) on March 16 and at Torredu (East Godavari) on April 4. In all, there are 19 auction floors in AP. E-auctions will be conducted on all the floors.
The authorised crop size for AP is 171 million Kgs but it is expected that there will be some surplus but it will be in manageable quantities.
This year for the first time the Tobacco Board set up an exhibition here in the Indian Tobacco Association hall with 225 samples of tobaccos from different soil regions for the benefit of the trade.. Tobacco Board chairman K. Gopal inaugurated the three-day exhibition on Monday.
The board chairman said on the occasion the trade should support the farmer by paying a remunerative price and the farmers on the other hand should produce quality tobacco without pesticide residues, following the recommended procedures. He said they should also go in for alternative crops to the extent of 30 per cent of the area or so.