The Hindu : Karnataka News : Organic tobacco can help make smoking less harmful, says research

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 05, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka

Organic tobacco can help make smoking less harmful, says research

Laiqh A. Khan

— PHOTO: M.A. SRIRAM

Tobacco cultivated under the conventional method in Mysore.

MYSORE: Just like organically grown food products are considered to be healthy, research at Central Tobacco Research Institute (CTRI) at Hunsur near here has proved that organic tobacco contains fewer harmful substances.

CTRI’s breakthrough comes at a time when the World Health Organisation (WHO) is bringing pressure to bear on the Union Government, which is a signatory to the Framework Convention Tobacco Control, to discourage cultivation of tobacco on account of its harmful effects.

Principal scientist and head of CTRI, Mysore, M.M. Shenoi told The Hindu that research had shown that organically grown Flue Cured Variety tobacco, used in cigarettes, contained fewer harmful substances such as nicotine, tar and car bon monoxide. “It is possible to produce safe cigarette tobacco through organic farming,” he said.

However, he hastened to add that the findings were only the “trends” of the research, which is expected to continue for two or three more years before a “conclusion” could be arrived at.

He said that a feasibility study for organic tobacco was under way at CTRI’s demonstration farm at Sollepura in Hunsur taluk.

“The findings are based on the first year’s trials. We are now in the second year of research. Only after continuing the research for two or three more years, we will be in a position to decide on the promotion of organic cultivation of tobacco among farmers,” he said.

Low yield

Though organic farming promises to bring down the percentage of harmful substances in tobacco, Dr. Shenoi said the yield of tobacco comes down by about 35 per cent in comparison to conventionally grown tobacco.

He said research would continue for reducing the gap of yield between conventionally grown and organically grown tobacco by modifying the agronomic practices.

Research has shown that it is possible to grow organic tobacco just like organic tomato or sapota, he said. During field trials, tobacco was grown without the use of any chemical fertilizer or pesticide used in conventional tobacco farming methods.

“We used vermi compost and neem-based bio- fertilizers and pesticides,” he said.

Even the yield of organic tobacco came down by a third in comparison to conventional farming, Dr. Shenoi said and added that the percentage of bright grade tobacco or superior quality tobacco went up substantially.

He said research taken up by CTRI was confined to Flue Cured Variety of tobacco, used in cigarettes.

This is the first time research had been taken up on organic farming in India and the results were successful insofar as growing safe cigarette tobacco.

However, scientific efforts will continue to bridge the gap between the yield of organic tobacco and the one under conventional farming.

Dr. Shenoi said the Flue Cured Variety of tobacco grown in the Mysore region had a moderate amount of nicotine and admissible levels of tar.

The other harmful substance of tobacco known as TSN (Tobacco Specific Nitrosamines) is below detectable range in Flue Cured Variety of tobacco grown in the region, he said.

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