About 89,500 hectares have been planted with flue-cured tobacco for the 2015-16 growing season, roughly 4,000 hectares less than the year before, The Herald reported.

Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board data show 20 per cent fewer growers registered this year and the number of new growers plummeted 45 per cent, the newspaper said. Low rainfall is compromising the amount and quality of this year’s crop, the newspaper said.