Sun-cured tobacco ( Nicotiana tabacum L.) is grown in farms depending mainly on manual labour. The reason why mechanized harvesting is not quite feasible is because sun-cured tobacco leaves are harvested progressively up the stalk as they ripen (five-six). Hand-harvesting requires more man-hours of labour 700-800 hours/ha. We have concluded that mechanization in all its phases is needed for the survival of tobacco production in our country. New genotypes of sun-cured tobacco were bred for aptness of whole-plant harvesting and curing. The influence of the two harvesting methods, hand-harvesting (in four operations) and the whole plant (one harvest) on yield and leaf quality was studied on sixteen "yellow" genotypes of sun-cured tobacco.