- 10 tobacco farmers from Karnataka honoured for their outstanding performance attaining higher productivity and improved crop quality
- TII highlights illegal cigarettes, driven by excessively high taxation have affected livelihood and earnings of domestic tobacco farmers
- Illicit cigarettes have reached 1/3rd of the legal cigarette volumes, leading to annual revenue loss of Rs. 21,000 crores to the Government
- TII urges government to provide export incentives to enhance competitiveness in the global market to tap huge export potential
- TII calls for transparent and inclusive discussions at the WHO FCTC COP11 meeting to protect the livelihood of 4.6 crore people in India’s tobacco sector
Mysuru, June 3, 2025 – The Tobacco Institute of India (TII) today celebrated the Silver Jubilee of the TII Tobacco Farmers’ Awards, marking 25 glorious years of honouring excellence in tobacco farming.
The ceremony, held in Mysuru, Karnataka was graced by distinguished guests, including Shri K. Venkatesh, Hon’ble Minister for Animal Husbandry & Sericulture, as Chief Guest, who inaugurated the ceremony. Shri Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar, Hon’ble Member of Parliament, Mysuru & Kodagu, presided over the event. Other notable attendees included Shri Yashwanth Kumar Chidipothu, Chairman of Tobacco Board, Shri B. C. Srinivas, IRS, Director (Auctions), Tobacco Board, and Dr. S. Ramakrishnan, Principal Scientist & Head, CTRI Research Station, Hunsur.
TII established these awards in 1999, with a view to honour and encourage the tobacco farming community for its effort in adopting modern, sustainable and innovative farming practices, which would help improve yields, crop variety and make Indian tobaccos competitive in the global market.
At the 25th edition held today, 10 progressive farmers from Karnataka were honoured for demonstrating the benefits of modern farming practices. The awards conferred included four categories such as Lifetime Achievement, Best Farmers, Recognition, and Sustainability Awards.
The event received a message of best wishes from the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Karnataka, Shri Siddaramaiah. In his message, the Hon’ble Chief Minister appreciated the dedication and resilience of tobacco farmers whose contributions have been pivotal to the agricultural and economic fabric of our nation. Notably, Shri Siddaramiah was the Chief Guest at the 5th edition of the TII Awards, held in Mysuru in the year 2005.
Speaking at the event, Mr. Sharad Tandan, Director, TII, highlighted the huge socio-economic contribution of the tobacco sector which provides livelihood to 4.6 crore people in India, including farmers and farm labourers. India is the 2nd largest tobacco producer in the world and the 3rd largest producer of Flue Cured Virginia (FCV) tobacco, following China and Brazil. India is a leading leaf tobacco exporter in the world, exporting tobacco to more than 100 countries across the globe.
Mr. Tandan highlighted that India’s tobacco and tobacco product exports reached an all-time high of over ₹16,000 crores in 2024-25. He noted that there is a huge potential for growth in the Indian tobacco exports. He called upon the Government to provide export incentives similar to what other large tobacco producing and exporting countries offer to their tobacco sector. This would improve the price competitiveness of Indian tobacco in the world market and help us tap the export potential, benefitting domestic farmers.
A significant challenge impacting the legal Industry and the domestic tobacco growers is the large illegal cigarette trade. Driven by extremely high cigarette taxation and resulting tax arbitrage, illicit cigarettes are estimated to be one-third of legal cigarette volumes, meaning every fourth cigarette sold in the country is illicit. This makes India the 4th largest illicit cigarette market globally and results in an annual revenue loss of ₹21,000 crores to the government.
Mr. Tandan stated that it has been seen in the past, that whenever taxes rise, the share of illicit cigarette trade increases. It was also seen that in the years in which taxes were not increased, the revenue grew at better rates. On the contrary, the high tax rate increases did not yield proportionate growth in tax revenues.
The huge profits, available due to tax arbitrage, attract anti-social elements and criminals to the illicit trade. The involvement of criminal gangs and terror networks in illegal trade has been acknowledged by WHO and other international organizations.
Mr. Tandan pointed out that since smuggled cigarettes do not use domestic tobacco, their presence over the years has caused drop in demand, affecting the earnings of farmers. FCV crop production in the country has dropped by 40% during the past decade. This has resulted in a cumulative loss of 238 million man-days of employment in tobacco growing areas. While FCV tobacco production in India has reduced over the past decade, other tobacco producing nations have increased production to meet the global demand. Thus, the drop in domestic production has only resulted in the export of jobs from India to other tobacco growing countries.
TII raised concerns about the upcoming WHO FCTC COP11 meeting in Geneva in November 2025, highlighting the likelihood of unreasonable and impractical policy measures proposed at this meeting. These bi-annual conferences have a history of making extreme policy recommendations for implementation across the globe, ignoring local realities and adverse consequences on economies of tobacco growing countries.
Past recommendations from the FCTC such as excessively high cigarette taxation and large (85%) pictorial health warnings have already led to serious consequences for the country’s legal cigarette industry and the tobacco-farming community, Mr Tandan observed. He hoped that COP11 refrains from recommending poorly conceived policy initiatives, particularly in areas such as tobacco crop diversification, which would severely disrupt India’s tobacco exports and threaten the livelihoods of millions of farmers, farm workers and their families dependent on tobacco.
Criticizing the undemocratic nature of FCTC meetings, which exclude key stakeholders like farmers, TII urged the Government of India to advocate for inclusive and democratic COP proceedings. TII also called upon the Government to strike a balance between adopting WHO proposals, which are recommendatory in nature, and the livelihoods of millions of small farmers and rural workers in the country by supporting reasonable tobacco policies.
About The Tobacco Institute of India (TII):
The Tobacco Institute of India (TII) is a representative body of farmers, manufacturers, exporters and ancillaries of the cigarettes’ segment of the tobacco industry in India. The Institute is recognized as a repository of reliable information on the industry and is privileged
to be consulted by Government, Parliamentary Committees, Chambers of Commerce/Trade Associations and Media for information and policy recommendations on Tobacco issues. As an organization, TII has always supported evidence-based, equitable, reasonable & implementable regulation and recognizes the need to create greater awareness regarding tobacco consumption in India.