TORONTO - Ontario's remaining tobacco farmers are on the brink of "starvation'' after their calls for a $1-billion exit strategy went unheeded in two government budgets last week, the group representing the growers said Monday.

Fred Neukamm, chair of the Ontario Flue-Cured Tobacco Growers Marketing Board, said the Ontario budget ignored the plight of tobacco farmers despite the fact the provincial government is now flush with extra cash from Ottawa.

"At this point, our farmers, our families, our communities are feeling very frustrated and abandoned by the governments that are supposed to be there to look after our interests,'' Neukamm said.

"Without some sort of intervention, we're going to starve. It's a very desperate situation.''

Ontario's dwindling number of tobacco farmers have been lobbying both the province and Ottawa for help converting to more lucrative crops.

They argue the government's war on tobacco has driven cigarette makers out of Canada and prompted Imperial Tobacco to close two of its plants in the province.

There are now about 1,000 tobacco families left in Ontario and Neukamm said all they want is some cash to "exit the industry with some dignity.''

Greenhouse season is coming up and farmers need answers so they don't waste another year growing a money-losing crop, Neukamm added.

"Something needs to be done immediately,'' he said.

But Agriculture Minister Leona Dombrowsky said if any cash is going to be doled out to tobacco farmers, it's got to come from the federal government.

While the majority of remaining tobacco farmers are in Ontario, Dombrowsky said the money to help them replace their crops should come from smokers across Canada through an increased tobacco tax.

"Ontario growers provide a product that is used by people across Canada, not just by people in Ontario,'' she said.

"The tobacco growers have made it very clear that they believe it should be the users of the tobacco product and not the taxpayers of Ontario who should fund this strategy.''

Norfolk County Mayor Dennis Travale said no one in the four tobacco-dependent southern Ontario communities cares which level of government provides the help farmers need -- so long as one of them takes action.

The province should have hiked its own tobacco taxes and used that cash to investigate possible alternative crops for farmers, Travale said.

"They're both responsible for it,'' he said, adding the provincial budget was a great disappointment. "They've certainly garnered billions and billions of dollars over the years from this product.''

But the decline of the tobacco industry has gutted southern Ontario _ costing 15,000 local jobs and draining $770 million from the economy, he said.

When tobacco farmers suffer, Travale said it has a domino effect throughout the community.

"It's a tremendous hit on our economy,'' Travale said.

Travale said the only benefit tobacco farmers might see from Thursday's provincial budget is in the new focus on poverty.

Tobacco farmers said they also feel shut out of last week's federal budget.

The Conservative government committed $1 billion for improvements to the national income farm program, and Ottawa has said it is working on an exit strategy for tobacco farmers.

Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl has said the Conservatives are looking for an "appropriate package for the region.''

But both provincial opposition leaders say the province doesn't have to wait for Ottawa. Conservative Leader John Tory said Ontario has hiked tobacco taxes several times and pocketed the cash instead of helping farmers find alternative crops.

"That's what they're looking for,'' Tory said of the money. "That's what they should get.''

NDP Leader Howard Hampton said tobacco farmers are being punished and abandoned by the province.

"Both governments were only too happy to promote this kind of product and collect taxes off this kind of product,'' he said. "To simply abandon them is dishonest.''