Growers demand increase in tobacco purchase price.

SWABI -- Ittehad-i-Kashtkaran Pakhtunkhwa (AKP) leaders on Monday demanded increase in the price of per kilogramme tobacco in proportion to the prevailing inflation.

Addressing a press conference here, AKP's provincial president Arif Ali Khan, vice-president Daud Jan and general secretary Asfandyar Khan said the federal commerce ministry had fixed Rs25 per kilogramme price of tobacco for the current year, which they said, was not enough keeping in view the high input costs like pesticides and fertilisers.

They unanimously demanded provision of pesticides to farmers at concessional rates, announcement of a farmer-friendly agriculture policy, increase in tobacco price, shifting the pricing mechanism of tobacco to provinces, making the export process easy, determining cost of production of all crops, making use of the arid land and insuring all crops.

'If our demands are...