TOBACCO

Tobacco, widely grown non-food crop of the world. It is consumed in form of Cigars, Beedi, Cigarettes, cheroots, pipe and hookah. India is the worlds third largest producer of tobacco next to china and USA and India also export 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 UP, near about 19.6 thousand hectares area is under tobacco cultivation. In UP mainly hookah, virginia and chewing tobaccos are cultivated. Alluvial soils of Farukhabad and Etah districts are good for its cultivation.
 

It can be grown on all types of soils. As being 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), Beedi, Hookah and Chewing, Cigar filler, Cigar Wrapper, Cheroot, Burley, Oriental, HDBRG, Lanka etc., are the different types of tobacco grown in the country.

Hookah varieties for Uttar Pradesh
Farrukhabad local, Kadamdal, Mena Bhengi, Snidurkhatua, Chama, Desi Calcuttia (Kalikatiya), Hatikania, R 12, HD 67-40, Snidurkhot, Patuakhol, NP 222, DP 401, Hemti, Barapat, Bitri, Villayati, Gobhi, Sonar Motihari, GCT-2.

Chewing and Snuff varieties
Pusa Tobacco 76, Prabha (HP 67-5), Sona (HP 63-3), Gandak Bahar (HP 6-20), Desi Jati, Oosikappal, NP 70, NP 219, NP 219, Podali,DP 401, Vaishali special, Chama, Maragandham, Meenakshi, Bhagyalakshmi, Bhawani special ,  VTK-1, PV 7, VR 2, VD1 etc.
 

Depending upon soil type prepared land by ploughing for six to ten times with help of mouldboard 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 cow dung or Farm Yard Manure and mixed well in soil.

Time of sowing
It depends upon region and variety to be sown. Optimum time of sowing nurseries and transplanting varies for different varieties (even in the same place).
In Uttar Pradesh, for hookah tobacco, optimum time for preparing nursery is in month of December whereas for chewing tobacco June to September is optimum time for nursery preparation.

Spacing
It varies with variety and region.
For FCV tobacco, use spacing of 70 x 50 cm or 100 x 60 cm. 
For Beedi Tobacco, use spacing of 90 x 60 cm, 100 x 75 cm or 75 x 50 cm
For Burley, Natu and Lanka tobacco, use spacing of 90 x 45 cm or 90 x 90 cm or 60 x 60 cm
For Cigar and cheroot, use spacing of 70 x 50 cm or 60 x 45 cm respectively
For hookah, use spacing of 90 x 90 cm or 60 x 45 cm.
In UP, transplanting of seedling is done at spacing of 45 cm X 45 cm.

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 2 kg per acre is optimum.

Seed Treatment
To protect the seedlings from seed borne diseases, treat seeds with Dithane Z- 78 or Dithane M-45@2.5 gm/litre 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 6-8 weeks 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 increase the size and leaf yield, Topping and De-sucking 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.
De-sucking: After topping, the auxiliary buds grow and put forth shoots known as suckers. Removal of these suckers is called de-sucking or suckering.
Except wrapper tobacco 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 farm yard manure or well decomposed cow dung or filter press cake per acre. Also, apply 40 kg Phosphorus in form of Single Super Phosphate@250 kg/acre as a basal dressing. Apply 40 kg of Nitrogen (Urea@90 kg/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 50 pm of chlorides, as it will lead to burning of the leaves and qualities of leaves will 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.

When  normal green colour 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 where as July-September in Karnataka. Harvest bidi tobacco in January-February. Optimum time for cigar and cheroot tobaccos is 90-100 days after planting when leaves become brittle and yellowish green. Where as 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 312kg and 395 kg/acre. For bidi tobacco, yield of 145-187kg/acre is obtained. For cigar, cherrot and chewing tobacco, gives yield of 520kg-666kg/acre.

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, colour and degree of blemish or damage.