KUTSAGA Research has moved with urgency to address some farmers’ concerns on early flowering of some flue- cured Virginia tobacco varieties, as efforts to boost production to 400 million kilogrammes next year intensify.
Several farmers in the Tobacco Farmer Talk (TFT) social media grouping have been complaining that their crop was flowering early and were afraid of yield and income losses, come marketing time.
Kutsaga plant breeder, Dr Chenjerai Kashangura, then advised farmers to follow the right practices from seedling preparations on seedbeds and remedies in the field.
Even though every plant that survives has a propensity to produce seed as progeny for the next generation, in the tobacco culture, the plant must not produce flowers and seed during the season.
“The affected growers must promptly remove the flowering part from the plant (ratooning) and allow one healthy sucker to grow.
“Apply suckercides to kill suckers not larger than two centimetres. This helps recover the lost plant parts,” he said.
Dr Kashangura also called on farmers to invest in irrigation facilities, saying irrigation scheduling allowed growers to plant on their scheduled dates and control even stressful field conditions such as prolonged drought.
The plant breeder said this problem started from seedbeds and encouraged farmers to properly establish their seedlings.
“The main cause is a lack of adequate water, especially in the preparation of seedlings on seedbeds.
“The second reason is soil compaction, which affects root development and uptake of nutrients from the soil,” he said.
Incidents of low temperatures may also cause early flowering, just like when seedlings remain in the seedbed for a long time (hardening).
In the normal tobacco cycle, eight weeks is when bud topping is expected to take place.
Early flowering occurs when the plant has been growing very well during the season, but then in mid-season, it encounters stressful conditions or has a record of going through a stressful patch at some point.
An advisory note from Kutsaga also explained that premature flowering occurs when tobacco plants begin to flower within six weeks after transplanting.
“The plants will develop irregular, strappy leaves that resemble sucker growth more than normal plant development,” read the notice. Early flowering occurs when a plant produces normal leaves but flowers with less leaves than usual and much earlier than expected. Plants will have normal leaf development, but with fewer leaves than a normal plant.”
The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) also concurred that some growers were witnessing early or premature tobacco flowering, a stress response that causes the plant to flower too soon, leading to reduced leaf quality and lower yields.
TIMB said growers must promptly remove the flowering part and allow one healthy sucker to grow to recover the lost plant.
Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Minister, Dr Anxiuos Masuka, said the country was targeting 400 million kilogrammes of tobacco in the 2025/26 season and hoped to grow this to 500 million kg by 2030.
He disclosed this when he officially commissioned the state-of-the-art Kutsaga Tissue Culture Facility in Harare recently.
Kutsaga, which celebrated its 75 years of existence this year, is the sole producer of elite high-yielding tobacco varieties. It has expanded its research by producing tobacco varieties that can be produced in all the parts of the country as part of the Government’s mantra of leaving no place and no one behind.
Tobacco seed produced by Kutsaga is even exported to countries within the African continent.-hrald
