Steps in the Elevation of Tobacco Culture in India

Steps in the Elevation of Tobacco Culture in India

Indian workers harvest a bountiful crop.

A continuation of last month’s look at how traditional methods are improving the agronomy of Indian leaf production.

By Sunitha Kolaventy, Executive Director, Indian Tobacco Board

65 Days Green Cover in Tobacco Cultivation

A new concept has been initiated in India tobacco agriculture with the hope of furthering sustainable crop production, sequestration of carbon, and preventing soil degradation.

The Tobacco Board of India is planning to begin a program of “365 days green cover” in tobacco farming. This concept will be implemented under a natural farming mode in low productive, drought-prone tobacco-growing villages. The immediate goal will be to improve the soil micro biome and soil organic carbon content.

The basis of ‘365 days green cover’, a continuous sequence of crops like legumes, millets and pulses—all less input intensive than tobacco—will be grown over the course of the year. Cropping is sustained even under dry conditions by adopting ‘dry-sowing’ of green manure seed before onset of rains instead of conventional sowing after onset of rains.

This model sustains soil health and also facilitates regular income for the tobacco growers throughout the year, thus mitigating market risks and ensuring overall farmer profitability. Tobacco Board is making efforts to implement on a pilot basis year-round green cover in tobacco cultivation this year in Andhra Pradesh.

Promotion of GreenTech Nurseries

There is a movement to persuade growers to switch over to GreenTech Nurseries, which involves nursery raising of tobacco seedlings in a partially controlled environment using PVC trays with sterilized cocopeat medium, all in an environmentally friendly manner.

This model of nursery raising has brought a drastic reduction in the cost of seedling production besides ensuring healthy, disease-free seedlings. This method also enables production of sturdy seedlings with good vigor which ultimately ensures a uniform crop stand with very low seedling mortality.

Most of the nurseries in the Northern Light Soil (NLS) region of Andhra Pradesh and almost all the nurseries in Karnataka are raised in poly trays which has helped in uniform crop stand as well as higher grade index.

Good Agricultural Practices in Tobacco Cultivation

The Tobacco Board of India with technical guidance of CTRI is consistently g efforts to promote Good Agricultural Practices in FCV tobacco as part of the Sustainable Tobacco Production program. Tobacco Board organizes regular awareness educational programs, training programs, workshops, study tours, and demonstrations for effective transfer of latest crop production technologies to the farmers. The extension staff of Tobacco Board regularly tours in the villages and provide necessary technical advice to the tobacco farmers.

Residue-free Tobacco Production

Dependence on chemical pesticides for pest control is endangering sustainability of farming owing to development of insecticide resistance to insect pests, annihilation of beneficial organisms, insect pest resurgence and environmental pollution. The increasing health concerns worldwide have also necessitated production of compliant tobaccos which are safer and free from pesticide residues.

IPM practices like plantation of ‘trap’ crops and border crops, erection of pheromone traps and yellow sticky traps for pest surveillance and mass trapping, usage of botanicals and bio pesticides are some of the major initiatives undertaken so far to ensure compliant tobacco production.

Minimization of CPA residues below the Guidance Residual Levels (GRL’s) is one of the serious issues focused by the Board. Sensing the impending danger of increasing chemical residues in the NLS of Andhra Pradesh, a major drive for eliminating chemical crop protection agents was taken up by Tobacco Board. Mass campaigns were implemented to educate growers on recommended pesticides, and a close watch was kept on farmers who tend to use non-recommended pesticides.

Grower awareness meetings were conducted to educate the growers on pest monitoring through scouting and pheromone traps, light traps, needbased pesticide application and switch over to botanicals instead of chemical pesticides. Leaf samples were collected from every village and testing for pesticide residues was taken up to identify cases of non-compliance. These campaigns had made an effective impact among tobacco farmers and the results of leaf analysis showed positive results with residues well below the Guidance Residue Levels (GRL).

Energy Conservation Measures

To sustain tobacco farmer profitability and to make tobacco cultivation eco-friendly, it is crucial to reduce the cost of curing—it constitutes 30 percent of total cost of production. Adoption of fuel-efficient technologies like paddy straw insulation, glass wool roof insulation of barns, installation of turbo ventilators for better barn ventilation and venture furnace sets for fuel wood savings were promoted through subsidies to the farmers.

These interventions have yielded around 25 percent savings in fuel wood consumed and the insulation of 30,000 barns in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka as part of these energy conservation measures. During 2018-19 crop season, the Tobacco Board of India has offered subsidies of Rs.21.04 million for promoting these energy conservation measures.

Development of Greenery

The Tobacco Board is focusing on green cover improvement as part of its Green Drive initiatives for addressing key issues like carbon sequestration, climate change mitigation and improvement of biodiversity. The Tobacco Board has been fostering green cover improvement by pioneering initiatives like ‘Raise your own fuel’ program, ‘community tree planting’, ‘Develop greenery in village commons,’ envisaged for voluntary replenishment of green cover involving all stake holders.

The look of the future: Tobacco field installed with pheromone traps, yellow sticky traps and a marigold trap crop.

Promoting Farmer Social Responsibility

The Tobacco Board has mandated planting of 10 tree saplings per year by every tobacco farmer for renewal of his/her grower registration. Tobacco Board is also contemplating a quota for each tobacco exporter to plant tree saplings for renewal of their registration with Tobacco Board every year. Tobacco Board has arranged supply of 6,50,000 saplings through the forest department to the tobacco farmers to fulfill their FSR.

Community plantation program and developing green cover by raising plantations in village common lands of tobacco-growing villages is also being promoted.

Corporate Social Responsibility

These outreaching efforts of Tobacco Board towards sustainability are yielding positive results. The utmost concern of the tobacco farmer is ‘farm profitability,’ also addressed through these initiatives and policy measures of Tobacco Board. These concerted efforts have placed Indian tobaccos a step ahead in meeting the customer requirements for safer tobacco production and the social cause of protecting ecological balance and climate resilience. All the stakeholders in the Industry are being propelled to do better and take this Green drive to a whole new level.

Initiatives are being taken for development of greenery and raising plantations in Silvopastoral agroforestry cultivation model in the Village Commons for strengthening the resilience of local farming community. The Indian tobacco trade is involved in this activity under its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs. The Indian tobacco major M/S ITC Limited has envisaged to develop greenery in tobacco-growing villages and also take up other sustainability initiatives as part of its CSR program, which are given below:

These outreaching efforts of Tobacco Board towards sustainability are yielding positive results. The utmost concern of the tobacco farmer is ‘farm profitability,’ also addressed through these initiatives and policy measures of Tobacco Board. These concerted efforts have placed Indian tobaccos a step ahead in meeting the customer requirements for safer tobacco production and the social cause of protecting ecological balance and climate resilience. All the stakeholders in the Industry are being propelled to do better and take this Green drive to a whole new level. [TI]