Tobacco is an important commercial crop cultivated in an area of 0.4 million ha producing annually around 700 million kg of cured leaf out of which 260 M kg is Flue-Cured Virginia tobacco (cigarette type). India is the 3rd largest producer of tobacco in the world after China and Brazil. Majority of the states in the Indian union territory grow one type or the other to a greater or lesser extent, significantly influencing the economy and prosperity of the farming community. Flue-Cured Virginia (FCV), Bidi, Hookah and Chewing, Cigar filler, Cigar Wrapper, Cheroot, Burley, Oriental, HDBRG, Lanka, are the different types of tobacco grown in the country. Tobacco is consumed in the form of cigarettes, cigars, cheroots, bidis, pipe and hookah. It is chewed in the form of Surti, Zarda, Qiwamquid, Masheri, Kharamasala.
Also, tobacco is inhaled in the form of snuff. The crop provides employment to about 36 million people directly or indirectly including 6 million farmers in the country. India ranks 5th largest exporter of tobacco in the world after Brazil, USA, Malawi and Turkey. The crop fetches annually around Rs.1,713 crores as foreign exchange through exports and over Rs. 9,100 crores as excise revenue. An estimated ~250 million people in the country use tobacco in different forms.
Flue-cured Virginia tobacco
In Andhra Pradesh, Flue-Cured Virginia (FCV) tobacco is grown in an area of 1,25,000 ha in East Godavari, West Godavari, Khammam, Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam, Nellore, Karimnagar and Warangal districts with a total production of 170 M kg of the leaf. While in Karnataka, FCV tobacco is cultivated in 85,000 ha of the area with a production of 87 M kg leaf. It is also grown in a smaller area in the states of Maharastra and Orissa. The recommended production technologies for FCV tobacco cultivation in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka are presented in Table 1
Table 1: Crop production practices for FCV tobacco in India
| Cultural Practice | Andhra Pradesh | Karnataka | ||
| Traditional Black Soils | Northern Light
Soils |
Southern
Light Soils |
Karnataka Light soils | |
| Variety | Gauthami, Hema VT-1158, Hemadri and Siri | Kanchan | Gauthami, Hema, VT-1158 and Kanthi | Kanchan, Thrupthi, Thrupthi, Swarna, Bhavya, |
| Preparatory Cultivation | Deep ploughing in Summer,2-3 ploughings between July and September | Deep ploughing and Discing with tractor with the onset of monsoon | Deep ploughing between July and September | Deep ploughing inMarch and April |
| Organic manures (tones/ha) | FYM @ 7.5 | Sunnhemp green manuring or application of FYM of FPC @ 10-12 or sheep or cattle penning | FYM @ 5 | FYM @ 8-10 |
| Date of Planting | Mid October to mid November | Mid-Sept. to mid- Oct. in upper NLS and mid-Oct. to mid-Nov. in lower NLS | Mid October to Mid. November | 1st Week of May to Middle of June |
| Spacing | 70X50 cm | 100X60 cm | 70X50 cm | 100X60 cm
|
| Planting method | Flat planting | Furrow planting followed by ridging on 40th day | Flat planting followed by ridging / earthing up | Flat planting followed by ridging |
| Method of Fertilization | Plant row- plough furrow | Dollop | Plant row- plough furrow | Dollop |
| Fertilizer dose (N: P2O5: K2O kg/ha) | 45:0:0
50:50:50 (Bhadrachalam) |
115:60:120
|
60:60:60
60:60:80 (Podili) |
60:40:120 |
| Irrigations | Crop is grown on conserved soil moisture | 8-10 | One life saving irrigation @40-45 days of planting | Grown in
S-W monsoon conditions |
| Intercultural operations | 40 day after planting | 2 or 3 times up to 40 days and ridging on 40th
day |
2 or 3 times before 40 days | 2 or 3 times before 40 days |
| Level of topping | Judicious topping at first flower opening | Topping at flower bud initiation at 24 leaves | Bud topping | Bud topping |
| Sucker control | Decanol or Royalten 4% or Pendimethalin @ 0.5 – 0.6% | Decanol or Royalten 4% or Pendimethalin@ 0.5 – 0.6% followed by hand desuckering | Decanol or Royalten 4% or Pendimethalin@ 0.5 – 0.6% | Decanol or Royalten 4% or Pendimethalin@ 0.5 – 0.6% |
| Harvesting | Priming mature leaves | Priming mature leaves | Priming mature leaves | Priming mature leaves |
| Curing method | Flue-curing | Flue-curing | Flue-curing | Flue-curing |
| Grading | Farm grading | Plant position grading | Farm grading | Plant position grading |
Note: Pendimethalin should not be used as weedicide.
Bidi and Pikka tobacco: Bidi tobacco is cultivated in Gujarat and Karnataka in 1.15 lakh ha area while Pikka tobacco is an important tobacco cultivated in Orissa for chewing and cheroot purposes. Important production technologies recommended for Bidi tobacco cultivation in Gujarat and Karnataka and Pikka tobacco in Orissa are furnished in Table 2.
Table 2: Crop production practices for Bidi and Pikka tobacco in India
| Cultural Practice | Bidi Tobacco | Pikka Tobacco | |
| Variety | Anand119, Anand 2, GT-4, GT-5,GT-7,GT-9,GTH- 1, GTH-1 (MR) | Karnataka A-119, NPN 190, Spoorthy Bhavya Sree NBD-43 |
Orissa Pyruvithanam, J.P.1, NG-74, II- 1327 |
| Preparatory Cultivation | Deep Ploughing in summer | Deep Ploughing in summer |
Deep Ploughing in summer |
| Organic Manures (tonnes/ha) | Green manuring or FYM @12.5 or poultry manure or Azolla |
FYM @10 | FYM @10 |
| Date of planting | August | 10-25 August | 2nd Fortnight of August |
| Spacing | 90 x 60 cm | 100 x 75 cm | 75 x 50 cm |
| Planting method | Flat planting | Flat planting | Flat planting & ridging |
| Method of fertilization | Plant row – plough furrow method | Deep placement before planting | Band placement |
| Fertiliser dose (N: P2O5: K2O kg/ha) | 160:0:0 | 125:60:40 | 80:40:40 |
| Irrigations | As and when required | 3-4 irrigations | Nil |
| Intercultural operations | As and when required | 2-3 times | Two hoeings & hand weeding |
| Level of topping | 18-24 leaves | 16-20 leaves | 10-12 leaves |
| Sucker control | Decanol 4-6% & hand removal | Khudaband 4-6% or Stomp 1.5% | Decanol 4% & hand removal |
| Harvesting | When leaves develop spangles | When maximum no. of leaves develop spangles | Stalk cut method |
| Curing method | Sun – curing | Sun – curing | Sun – curing |
| Grading | Bukha, Geran, Galia,Lankada | I sort, II sort etc. | —- |
Burley, Natu, and Lanka tobaccos: In Andhra Pradesh, Burley, Natu and Lanka tobaccos are cultivated to the extent of 45,000 ha. The Important recommended production technologies for these tobaccos are given in Table 3.
Table 3: Crop production practices for Burley, Natu and Lanka tobaccos in Andhra Pradesh.
| Cultural Practice | Burley | Irrigated Natu | Rainfed Natu | Lanka |
| Variety | Burley-21 and Banket A1 | Kommugudem,Peddavithanam,
Pyruvithanam,Rangapuram |
Tokaku, Viswanath,Natu Spl.,Prabhat, WAF,Bhairavi |
Lanka Spl. |
| Preparatory Cultivation | Deep Ploughing in summer | Deep ploughing in summer | Deep ploughing in summer |
Deep ploughing in summer |
| Organic manures (tonnes/ha) | FYM @ 10 | FYM @ 10 –12 or green manuring | FYM @ 15 | FYM @10 |
| Date of planting | Mid-July to mid-August | Second to last week of October | Mid-Oct. To 1 week of November | Last week of Oct. to 15th Nov. |
| Spacing | 90 x 45 cm | 60 x 60 cm | 90 x 90 cm | 60 x 60 cm |
| Planting method | Ridge planting | Flat planting followed by ridging | Flat planting | Flat planting followed by ridging |
| Method of fertilization | Dollop | Dollop | Plough furrow | Dollop |
| Fertiliser dose (N: P2O5: K2O kg/ha) | 125:50:50 | 350:50:100 | 80:50:50 | 300:50:50 |
| Irrigations | Monsoon crop | 6-8 | Rainfed | 3-4 |
| Interculture | 2 – 3 times | 2 – 3 times | 2-4 times | 3-4 times |
| Level of topping | No topping | 14-16 leaves | 14-16 leaves | 12-14 leaves |
| Sucker control | —- | Decanol 6% | Decanol 6% | Decanol 6% |
| Harvesting | Priming | Stalk cut (katta) or priming (Thoranam method) | Priming | Stalk cut |
| Curing method | Air-curing | Air-curing | Air-curing | Air-curing |
| Grading | Flyings,bottom, middle and top | Melmi & Gulla | Bright, brown, dark brown, green and perished leaf | Kotaku, Baraku Mattasam
|
Cigar & Cheroot, Chewing, Hookah and HDBRG Tobaccos: Chewing, cigar and cheroot tobaccos are the major types grown in Tamil Nadu. Chewing tobacco is mainly grown in West Bengal, Bihar, U.P. & Assam, while hookah tobacco is cultivated in U.P.,
Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana and Assam. HDBRG tobacco is mainly cultivated in black soils of Guntur district in Andhra Pradesh with 3 – 4 irrigation which is used in cigarette blending.
Table 4: Crop production practices for in Cigar & Cheroot, Chewing, Hookah and HDBRG Tobaccos in India
| Cultural Practice | Cigar & Cheroot -Tamil Nadu | Chewing- Bihar, Tamil Nadu & West Bengal |
Hookah-West Bengal |
HDBRG- Andhra Pradesh |
| Variety | O-K.1, Bhavani Spl., Olor-10, I-737, Sangami | Bihar : Vaishali Spl., Sona, PT-76, Lichchavi
West Bengal: Podali, Chama Tamil Nadu: Bhagyalakshmi, Meenakshi, Abirami, Kaviri, Meenakshi (CR)
|
DD-437 and Dharla Sonar-Motihari, Manasi |
HDBRG |
| Preparatory Cultivation | 4-6 ploughings in Kharif |
Deep ploughing in summer | Deep ploughing in summer | Deep ploughing in summer |
| Organic manures (tonnes/ha) | FYM @ 25 or sheep – penning |
FYM @ 25 | FYM @ 20 | FYM @ 10 |
| Date of planting | Mid-Oct., to Mid-Nov. | Bihar & Bengal: Mid Sept. to mid Oct.
T.N. Last week of Oct. to end of Nov. |
Mid-Oct. to 1st week of November | 1 week of Oct., 1st week of November |
| Spacing | Cigar: 70 x 50 cm
Cheroot: 60 x 45 cm |
Bihar: 90 X 75cm Bengal: 90 x 45 cm T.N. 65 x 65cm |
Jati: 90 x 90 cmMotihari: 60 x 45 cm |
80 x 50 cm |
| Planting method | Ridge planting | Ridge planting | Flat planting followed by ridging | Flat planting |
| Method of fertilization | Dollop | Dollop | Pocketing | PRPF |
| Fertiliser dose (N: P2O5: K2O kg/ha) | 100:50:100 | Bihar:250:60:60 Bengal: 120:50:75 T.N:100:50:0 |
120:50:75 | 100:50:50 |
| Irrigations | 20 | Bihar :3 Bengal: 2 Tamil Nadu: 22 |
2 | 2-3 |
| Intercultural operations | 2 – 3 times | 2 – 3 times | 4 – 5 times | 2-3 times |
| Level of topping | 14-16 leaves | Bihar: 14 –16 leaves Bengal: 8-10 leaves Tamil Nadu: 10 leaves |
8 – 10 leaves | 20 leaves |
| Sucker control | Decanol or Royalten 6% | Decanol or Royalten 6% | Decanol or Royalten 6% | Decanol or Royalten6% |
| Harvesting | Stalk – cut | Stalk – cut | Priming | Priming |
| Curing method | Sun-curing | Sun-curing | Air-curing | Sun-curing |
| Grading | Plant position (Rasi & Kruz) | Bihar:1 , 2 , 3 & 4th grades T.N: Rasi & Kruz | Panpatta No.1, Niras &Jalapatta |
Bottom,middle &top primings |
Source-
MLA
“TOBACCO PRODUCTION AND PROTECTION TECHNOLOGIES FOR …”Central Tobacco Research Institute. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 May. 2017 <http://www.ctri.org.in/files/agronomy.pdf>.
APA
TOBACCO PRODUCTION AND PROTECTION TECHNOLOGIES FOR …(n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.ctri.org.in/files/agronomy.pdf
- Central Tobacco Research Institute
