The survey on Cost of Production (COP) of tobacco 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 on Tuesday that the 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 resentment 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 minimise any potential criticism of the survey in future. Furthermore, the entire process of COP survey has been made more transparent to allay the resentment of the critics. 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 those interviewed 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-Khashtkaraan to participate in the ongoing exercise & check its transparency. During the COP survey, per hectare yield of tobacco for 2013 need to be worked out carefully and it should be in line with the inputs applied for working out realistic MIP in future, sources added.
