The agro-climatic conditions in India are conducive to the production of many types of tobaccos, such as FCV, Burley, Natu, chewing, Bidi, and cigar wrappers. In the past decade, research projects initiated at the Central Tobacco Research Institute and its Regional Stations have changed the tobacco scenery. The most relevant achievements are the following :
a) New FCV varieties like CM12(KA), Bhavya, Gauthami, VT1158 and Hema, released by CTRI for light and medium-heavy soils of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have increased the yield from 940 kg/ha to 1800 kg/ha.
b) A high yielding Burley tobacco cv Banket A1 has well adapted to the agency area of Andhra Pradesh yielding 1200 kg/ha grown as monsoon crop.
c) Chewing tobacco varieties - Vaishali Special, Meenakshi and Bagyalakshmi, have proved to be high yielders producing 3000 to 3200 kg/ha.
d) Integrated pest and disease management systems have been developed for the control of Spodoptera , Heliothis , damping-off, root knot and orobanche.
e) Pulses, oilseeds and cotton were found to be remunerative alternate crops for tobacco in vertisols.
f) Nicotine sulfate, solanesol, organic acids and edible proteins are the by-products from tobacco and tobacco waste.
g) Varieties with low tar and low nicotine have been identified.
h) Mosaic and black shank resistant tobacco varieties were evolved and released for large-scale cultivation.
i) Solarization with white alkalene coupled with Neem-cake @ 200 g/m2 were found promising in the control of root-knot nematodes in seedbeds.