Tobacco, widely grown non-food crop of the world. It is consumed in form of Cigars, bidis, cigarettes, cheroots, pipe and hookah. India is the worlds third largest producer of tobacco next to china and USA also India exported tobacco to more than 80 countries. Tobacco sector provide various jobs to rural India in agriculture sector as well as in manufacturing and distributions of tobacco products. It is cultivated all over India but Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, west Bengal and Uttar Pradesh are major tobacco growing states.

In Maharashtra, near about 1, 955 hectares area is under tobacco cultivation. Sangli and Kolhapur are major tobacco growing district.

Because of many socio economical reason, Government and Agricultural department is trying to shift area under tobacco crop to other crops.  

It can be grown on all types of soils. As a rainfed crop, it grows best on alluvial soils, loamy soils and black clayey soils. Cigar and cheroot tobaccos cultivated on gray to red soils varying from light gravelly to sandy loams soils. Chewing tobacco grown on all types of soils. Avoid water logged soils for its cultivation. For good quality cigar, mixed sand with soils.  Choose soils having large quantities of nitrogen, potassium, calcium and magnesium.

Different types of tobacco grown in India.

Flue-Cured Virginia (FCV),
Bidi, Hookah and Chewing,
Cigar filler, Cigar Wrapper
Cheroot, Burley,
Oriental, HDBRG,  Lanka etc., are the different types of tobacco grown in the country.

In Maharashtra, Flue Cured Virginia (FCV) and Bidi tobacco are cultivated on larger scale.
FCV varieties: Chatam, Sahyadri, Hemadri, Siri, Sahyadri, Thrupthi, LT Kanchan, CH 1, CH 3, Swarna.
Bidi Tobacco: GT 4, Anand 119, Vedaganga, NBD 209, ABT 10, GTH 1, GT 5, GT 7.
 

Depending upon soil type prepared land by ploughing for six to ten times with help of mould board plough and country plough. After ploughing carry out harrowing to break clods and make soil level. Remove weeds and keep field weed free. Depending upon soil type, apply well decomposed cowdung or Farmyard Manure and mixed well in soil.

Time of sowing
It depend upon region and variety to be sowing. Optimum time of sowing nurseries and transplanting varies for different varieties (even in the same place).
Complete sowing should be done in April -May month in nursery. And complete transplantation of seedlings in October month. 

Spacing
It varies with variety and region.
For FCV tobacco, use spacing of 70x50cm or 100x60cm. 
For Bidi Tobacco, use spacing of 90x60cm, 100x75cm or 75x50cm
For Burley, Natu and Lanka tobacco, use spacing of 90x45cm or 90x90cm or 60x60cm
For Cigar and cheroot, use spacing of 70x50cm or 60x45cm respectively
For hookah, use spacing of 90x90cm or 60x45cm.

Method of sowing
Transplantation of seedling in main field. Transplanting is done on ridge or on flat beds.
 

Seed Rate
For all types of tobacco, seed rate of 1.2 to 2kg per acre is optimum.

Seed Treatment
To protect the seedlings from seed borne diseases, treat seeds with Dithane Z- 78 or Dithane M-45@2.5gm per Ltr of water before sowing them in nursery.
 

As tobacco seeds are small and egg-shaped so seeds are unsuitable for sowing directly in the field. Therefore, they are sown first in nursery then seedlings are transplanted in the main field.

For nursery raising select sandy or sandy loam soils. Avoid heavy black soils as these soils are having poor drainage capacity and causes damping off disease in nursery.

During bright sunny hours, also in heavy rainfall, to protect nursery from damage, use mulches and covers.

Depending upon requirement do top dressing of Nitrogen.

When seedlings are become 6-8weeks old, they are ready for transplantation.

Stop irrigation to seedlings a week before removing them from nursery in order to harden them.

Other cultural practices:

To increased, size and leaf yield, Topping and desuckings operations are carryout.

Topping: Remove terminal bud with or without some of the top leaves just before or after the emergence of the flower head.

Desucking: After topping, the auxillary buds grow and put forth shoots known as suckers. Removal of these suckers is called desucking or suckering.

Except wrapper tobaccos all of the tobaccos grown are topped and suckered.

Fertilizer Requirement (kg/acre)

Nutrient Requirement (kg/acre)

Fertilizer dose is different in different tobacco growing areas. At time of land preparation apply general dose of 10 tons of farmyard manure or well decomposed cowdung or filter press cake per acre. Also, apply 40kg Phosphorus in form of Single Super Phosphate@250kg/acre as a basal dressing. Apply 40kg of Nitrogen (Urea@90kg/acre) as top-dressing in installments per acre.

In nursery use hand weeding to keep check on weeds.  In main field, keep field weed free for initial 60 days after transplantation. In main field, as rows are placed at wider distance inter-row cultivation is feasible.  Take one or two cultivations followed by manual weeding. It gives adequate control on weeds.

Tobacco crop is sensitive to POST herbicides applications. So apply herbicides like Pronamide, Fluchloralin, Isopropalin, Isoxaben before planting the seedlings in the main field.
 

Tobacco on black soils is not normally irrigated, but in adverse conditions, one irrigation for 40 day old plants is recommended. When it is cultivated on light soils it requires six irrigations. Provide good quality water for irrigation. It should not contain more than 50pm of chlorides, as it will lead to burning of the leaves and qualities of leaves get suffer.

• Pest and their control:
  

Stem borers: The caterpillars bore into stems and caused characteristics gall-like swellings on them.

As a preventive measures remove and destroyed affected stems during crop growth. Use healthy seedling for transplantation purpose.
Take spray of Carbaryl 50%@60gm/10Ltr of water. if necessary spray 2-3 times with interval of 15days.
 
 

Aphids: They feed on sap, and they excrete out honeydew while feeding where the sooty mould (fungus) also develops. The quality of such leaves get deteriorated.

If infestation is observed, take spray of Acephate 75SP@6gm/Ltr of water or Methyl demeton 25EC@2ml/Ltr of water.

Tobacco leaf-eating caterpillar: The young caterpillars, feed gregariously on tender leaves and juicy stems.

If infestation is observed, at early stage do dusting of 10% Carbaryl@8-10kg/acre. In severe infestation take spray of Quinalphos 25EC@ 20ml/10Ltr of water.

• Disease and their control:
  

Damping off: Avoid overcrowding of seedlings. Provide regular and light watering. Avoid water stagnation in field. Drench nursery beds with Bordeaux mixture 0.4%(40 gm of copper sulphate +40 gm of lime/10 lit of water) or Blitox @20 gm/10Ltr of water), two days after seed sowing.

If infestation is observed, take spray of Redomil 72 WP@2gm/Ltr of water. Depending upon necessity repeat spray with interval of 10-15days.
 

Leaf Curl: Use yellow sticky traps@12/ha to check infestation of white fly.

To control white fly population, take alternative spray of Chlorpyrifos 20% EC@25ml/10Ltr water, Acephate 75% SP@10gm/ 10lit water and Demeton-s-methyl 25% EC@15ml/10 litres of water.
 

Angular leaf spot: If appeared in nursery take spray of Bordeaux mixture 0.4% to keep check on this disease. If infestation is observed in field, take spray of Streptocycline@200mg/lit of water or Spray with Thiophanate methyl@300gm/acre or Carbendazim@200gm/acre to controls this disease.
 

Brown spot: If infestation is observed, take spray of Thiophanate methyl or Dithane Z 78@2gm per Ltr of water
 

Powdery Mildew: As a preventive measure, apply sulphur powder (200 mesh) @16kg/acre on soil between plant row, 6-8 weeks after transplanting. If infestation is observed take Spray 0.2% Karathane@2gm or 0.05% Bavistin@0.5gm/Ltr of water.
 

Anthracnose: Discarding the diseased seedling. As a protective measure in cloudy weather take spray of Zineb@2gm per Ltr of water or Dithane Z 78@1gm/lit of water.
 

When normal green color of leaves, changes to yellowish green or to light yellow, they are ready for harvesting. Harvesting time varies with region and variety grown.

In AP, December-March is optimum time for the flue-cured Virginia whereas July-September in Karnataka. Harvest bidi tobacco in January-February. Optimum time for cigar and cheroot tobaccos is 90-100days after planting when leaves become brittle and yellowish green. Whereas chewing tobacco is harvested 110-120 days after planting.

May-June is good time for harvesting of hookah tobacco (rustica).

For harvesting, two methods are used, like priming and stalk cut method.

Priming: Generally lower leaves mature first followed by upper leaves. Do Harvesting and remove few leaves as and when they mature. For Cigarette and wrapper tobaccos harvesting priming method is used.

Stalk cut method: For harvesting of Cigar, cheroot, chewing, bidi and hookah tobaccos stalk cut method is used. In this method, plants are cut close to the ground with a sickle and generally left in the field overnight for wilting.  Carryout harvesting when maximum number of leaves gets mature.

On an average, for flue cured Virginia and natu tobacco gives yield of about 750kg and 950kg/ha. For bidi tobacco, yield of 350-450kg/ha is obtained. For cigar, cherrot and chewing tobacco, gives yield of 1,250kg-1,600kg/ha and 950kg, 800-850kg for the hookah and chewing tobaccos.
 

Main objective of Curing is to produce dried leaf. In curing process drying of leaves is obtained by controlling various factor like ventilation, temperature and humidity.

After curing process, leaves are graded by sorting leaves into uniform lots according to body, color and degree of blemish or damage.