India is working on a scheme to motivate farmers to shift from tobacco crop to some other produce in a bid to reduce its plantation area by more than half in the next one decade as a part of international commitment to fight cancer due to tobacco.

According to Deputy Director General (DDG), ICAR, S K Dutta, Central Tobacco Research Institute (CTRI), Rajahmundry, in Andhra Pradesh is working on a scheme to provide some sort of financial incentive to farmers to motivate majority of them to shift to cultivation of some other crops than tobacco.He said, India aims to bring down acreage under tobacco to 2 lakh hectares by 2020 from over 4.50 lakh hectares presently.

It is currently producing about 7.50 lakh tonnes of tobacco annually. India is the second largest producer and exporter of tobacco after China and Brazil. Andhra Pradesh is the leading producer of tobacco in the country followed by Maharashtra, Karnataka and West Bengal and nearly 30 million farmers are involved in tobacco cultivation.