Journal of Community Mobilization and Sustainable Development

India holding second dominant position in the global tobacco with a production of 761 M kgs of tobacco and providing livelihood to 45.7 million people. Tobacco generates significant tax revenues and export earnings to the Government of India. In the current scenario of tobacco control measures, the present investigation is an attempt to assess the socio-economic impact of chewing tobacco. The study was carried out in Dindigul and Erode districts of Tamil Nadu state during 2018-19. A total of 160 respondents were selected among which 80 tobacco farmers and 80 non-tobacco farmers were selected for study. The results revealed that high level of socio-economic impact is observed for tobacco growers in terms of land size, annual income, expenditure pattern, net returns, possession of assets, habitat security and social empowerment than non-tobacco farmers. The different factors for growing tobacco are profitability, contact with institutions/organizations, knowledge on GAP and availability of market are the significant ones. For non-tobacco crops, the major factors for cultivation are location suitability, adoption of improved technologies and timely availability of inputs. The major constraints identified from tobacco and non-tobacco farmers are availability and high wages of labour and non-availability of sufficient credit.