Tobacco Cultivation – Instant Info
What is the significance of tobacco?
Tobacco contains chemical called Nicotine
Human brain becomes highly addicted to Nicotine easily
Tobacco is the leading cause for many types of cancers and other cardiovascular and respiratory diseases
According to WHO, Every year, more than 8 million people die from tobacco use
Tobacco can also be deadly for non-smokers too who intake tobacco by passive smoking
Passive smoking or second hand smoking during pregnancy can lead to several life long adverse health conditions for babies
Heated tobacco products (HTPs) contain tobacco and expose users to toxic emissions, many of which cause cancer and are harmful to health
Electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) and electronic non-nicotine delivery systems (ENNDS), commonly known as e-cigarettes, do not contain tobacco and may or may not contain nicotine
According to WHO, Tobacco kills up to half of its users
Tobacco kills more than 8 million people each year
More than 7 million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use while around 1.2 million are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke
Over 80% of the world’s 1.3 billion tobacco users live in low- and middle-income countries
What is the botanical name and family of Tobacco?
The botanical name of tobacco is Nicotiana sp.
The genus Nicotiana contains more than 60 species
only two i.e. Nicotiana tabacum and Nicotianan rustica are commercially grown for tobacco production
Nicotiana tabacum has more area under cultivation while N. rustica requires cooler temperatures and are mostly found in North eastern India
Where does tobacco grow best? Climate and soil requirement in Tobacco cultivation?
Optimum temperature for tobacco is 15 to 20 degree C during growth period
50-100 cm annual rainfall is required for tobacco crop during growth period
Tobacco cannot stand if rainfall is more than 100cm
After harvesting to dry the leaves it requires bright sunshine & dry weather
Too dry weather is not suitable as leaves break into small pieces
Soil requirement for tobacco cultivation
Different types of soil are required for tobacco
Bidi tobacco – as rainfed crop in alluvial, black clayey or loamy soils
Cigar tobacco – grown on red soils from gravelly to sandy loams. For quality Cigar, soil should be mixed with sand
What are different Varieties of Tobacco?
Flue-Cured tobacco
Harrison special, Chatham, Delcrest, Virginia gold, Kanakaprabha, Whit gold, Dhanadayi
tobacco for Bidi purpose
Keliu-49, Keliu-20, Surati-20, Anand-2, Anand-3, Anand-23, Anand-119, Kunkumathiri
Natu tobacco
D G.3, D.G.4, D.R.1
Cigar filler tobacco
OL-10, VV-2, KV-1, I-462
Tobacco for Cherrot purpose
OK-1, 1-737
Tobacco for Chewing purpose
64, PV-7, WR-2, I-115, VTK-1, VD-1, S-1, P-4, S-57, Anand-145
Hookah tobacco
N.P.70, N.P.35, D.P.401, D.D.413, N.P.18, N.P.20
How do you farm tobacco? What are Cultivation practices of tobacco?
6-10 ploughing are given by way of preparatory cultivation
Digging with a spade, followed by ploughing with a mould board plough and a country plough and then a harrowing is recommend
Farmyard manure is usually applied and the dose varies from 10-125 cartloads per hectare for different types of tobacco
Application of phosphorus and potash was found beneficial for some tobaccos
What Spacing is used in tobacco?
a spacing of 80cm x 80cm for natu and the flue cured
100cm x60cm for the flue-cured
How are tobacco Nurseries prepared?
The nurseries for producing seedlings are located on sandy or sandy loams
The seed is sown on raised or flat well-prepared seedbeds with intervening channels
A seed rate of 3-5kg per hectare has been found to be the optimum for all types of tobacco
The nursery sowing is varies from state to state and types of tobaccos is given as
For the flue cured, Virginia and natu tobacco in Andhra Pradesh are sown in August-September and in Karnataka in April-May
For the bidi tobacco in Gujarat and Karnataka, the nurseries are sown in June-July for the cigar, cheroot and chewing tobaccos in Tamil Nadu in August-September
For the hookah and chewing tobaccos in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal in August-October
To protect the tender seedlings from desiccation on a sunny day and from washing off during heavy rains, different covers or mulches were found useful in different areas. Suitable control measures are to be adopted rigorously to keep the nurseries healthy
Top dressing of nitrogen is to be given, as and when required, from the third week onwards to boost the growth of the seedlings
Normally, the seedlings will be ready for transplanting in 6-8 weeks
Water should be reduced a week before removing the seedlings in order to harden them.
What is Fertilizer schedule and dosage in tobacco cultivation?
A general dose of for tobacco is 25 tonnes of farmyard manure or filter press cake as a layer; 100kg phosphorus as a basal dressing and 100kg of nitrogen as top-dressing in installments per hectare should be applied
How is Irrigation done in tobacco plantation?
Tobacco crop on light soils is given up to six irrigations while there is no need to gove irrigation if tobacco is grown on heavy black soils
The irrigation water should not contain more than 50 ppm of chlorides, as otherwise the leaves get burnt and other qualities suffer
In black soils also, in adverse conditions, one irrigation on 40 day old plants is recommended
What are the intercultural operations carried out in tobacco cultivation?
When after the plants get established i.e. about 20 days after planting, the tobacco fields are given frequent interculturing and weeding to conserve the soil moisture and check the growth of weeds
Mulching the crop with paddy straw at 3600 kg per hectare after the first interculture is beneficial in the case of the flue-cured virginia tobacco on black soils in increasing the yields and improving the quality by conserving soil moisture
Topping in tobacco
Topping is the removal of the flower head alone or along with some of the top leaves of the plant.
Most of the types of tobacco are topped and suckered for improving the size, body and quality of the leaves
The level of topping varies from type to type and ranges from high topping to the very low topping
In the case of the flue-cured virginia tobacco only the flowerhead is removed, leaving all the 20-24 leaves intact while in case of chewing tobacco only 7-8 leaves are retained on the plant
Plant protection in tobacco plantations
There are pests which infest tobacco and are given as below
Tobacco leaf-eating caterpillar
The caterpillars, when young, feed gregariously on tender leaves and juicy stems
It becomes isolated at the later stages of growth
Control
Collection and destruction of egg masses and caterpillars and thorough ploughing after the harvest of the crop
At the early stage of infestation dusting with 10% Carbaryl at 20-25 kg/ha controls the pest satisfactory
Stem borers
The caterpillars bore into stems and caused characteristics gall-like swellings on them.
Control
Preventive measures include the removal and destruction of the affected stems during the growth of the crop also after harvesting the crop-stray and wild tobacco plants should be destroyed
Care should be taken to plant healthy seedlings from the seedbed if infestation is noticed at the seeding stage
Aphids
By constant feeding on sap, the leaves look sickly and become unfit for curing
They excrete out honeydew while feeding on plant sap, where the sooty mould (fungus) also develops
The quality of such leaves thus deteriorated
The Rosettee disease of tobacco is know to be transmitted by these aphids
Control
Spraying with 0.02% phosphamidon, parathion, methyl demeton, thiometon or menazen effective for controlling the pest
Harvesting and Storage in tobacco cultivation
The leaves are considered ready for harvesting when the normal green colour changes to yellowish green or to light yellow
The harvesting time of different types of tobacco is different as below: –
The flue-cured Virginia tobacco is harvested during December-March in Andhra Pradesh and during July-September in Karnataka.
The bidi tobacco is harvested in January-February
The cigar and cheroot tobaccos are harvested 90-100 days after planting when the leaves pucker and become brittle and yellowish green
The chewing tobacco is harvested 110-120 days after planting when the leaves develop pronounced puckering
The hookah tobacco (rustica) is harvested in May or June, and the tabacum harvested when broad flecks appear on the leaves
The whole plants are harvested in the case of the bidi, cigar and cheroot, chewing and hookah tobaccos
The average yield of tobacco leaf per hectare is about 750kg and 950kg for the flue cured Virginia and the natu tobacco
1,000 kg, 450kg and 350kg for the bidi tobacco. 1,250 kg and 1,600 kg for the cigar and cheroot and chewing tobaccos. 950kg, 850kg and 800 kg for the hookah and chewing tobaccos
References
Handbook of Agriculture