There are two main varieties of tobacco grown in India. Nicotiana Tobacum provides about 89.4 per cent of the production although it occupies only.
10 per cent of the total area of the tobacco in the country. It is mainly grown for cigarette, cigar] cheroot and bidi. Its plants are tall and have long, broad leaves with pink flowers. Nicotiana rustica, which accounts for 90 per cent of the tobacco are and 10.6 per cent of its production, has yellow flowers, round and puckered leaves and short stem it is mainly confined to the northern and north eastern parts of the country. The crop is used hookah, chewing and snuff.
Depending upon the uses we have cigarette tobacco grown in Andhra Pradesh (Guntur and Krish districts), Karnataka and Bihar; cigar and cheroot tobacco in Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Ta Nadu; bidi tobacco in Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh; hookah tobacco in Uttar Pradesh West Bengal, Gujarat, Orissa and Bihar; chewy tobacco in Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa, Tamil Nadu Maharashtra and Gujarat; and snuff tobacco grow in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, West B gal, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Punjab.
Amongst tobacco growing states of the country. Here hookah tobacco is very popular. Main producers are Farrukhabad, Varanasi, Meerut, Bulandshahr, Mainpuri, and Sharanapur districts. Karnataka
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With 25.08 per cent of the total tobacco area and 10.97 per cent of its total production in India Karnataka is the fourth largest producer of the crop in the country. Here Belgaum and Mysore districts are the major producers. Maharashtra
Maharashtra contributes 1.83 per cent of the total area and 1.42 per cent of the total production of tobacco in the country. Here Biri tobacco is cultivated in Nipani area comprising Kolhapur, Sangli, Satara and Miraj districts. West Bengal
West Bengal provides 2.45 per cent of the total area and 0.81 per cent of the total production of tobacco in India. It produces mainly cigar and hookah tobacco. The main producers include Hugli Koch Bihar, Malda, Dinajpur and Jalpaiguri districts.
Gujarat
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Gujarat contributes 20.18 per cent of the total area and 23.37 per cent of the total production of tobacco in the country. It’s per hectare yield (17.42 qtl/ha) is the second highest after Uttar Pradesh. Most of the production consists of bidi and cigarette tobaccos. Kheda district (Anand, Borsad, Petlad, and Nadiad talukas) alone contributes about 70 per cent of the state’s production folJowed by Vadodara (20 per cent).
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh accounts for 35.78 per cent of the total area and 34.15 per cent of the total production of tobacco in the country. Virginia and Delores are the main varieties which are used for cigarette manufacture. Prakasam and Guntur districts together contribute more than half of the state’s production of tobacco. Other important producers a rare Nellore, Kurnool, West Godavari, Vishakhapatnam and Krishna districts. In Krishna and Guntur districts the soils are rich in lime. Here tobacco is mainly raised as an unirrigated crop.
Bihar
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Bihar accounts for 4.28 per cent of the total area and 3.25 per cent of the total production of tobacco in the country. Here 90 per cent of the production comes from Purnea, Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga, Munger, Samastipur and Vaishali districts.
Others
Tobacco is also grown in Orissa (Koraput), Rajasthan, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Assam (Kamrup district), Punjab (Amritsar, Jalandhar, Gurdaspur, Ferozepur districts), and Haryana (Gurgaon, Karnal and Ambala districts) states.
Trade
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India is the seventh largest exporter of unmanufactured tobacco in the world. Bulk of the export goes to the U.K., Japan. Russia, Ireland, Germany. U.A.R., Nepal, Indonesia, Singapore, Pakistan and Netherlands. Virginia tobacco is the main variety of export. The value has increased from Rs. 14.1 1 crores in 1950-51 to Rs. 1096 crores in 2003-04. About 80 per cent of the total production of tobacco in the country is utilised locally in the manufacture of cigarettes, biris, cigars, cheroots etc.
The Indian Central Tobacco Committee was established in 1945 for propagating high-grade tobacco. The Central Tobacco Research Institute at Rajahmundry (Andhra Pradesh) is busy in developing new high grade variety of tobacco and improving its output.