The tobacco industry of China, with production hampered by lingering adverse weather, is striving to fight off natural disasters and guarantee sufficient tobacco crops for cigarette production in the current year.

From the autumn of 2009 to early 2010, southwest China – the largest tobacco-growing zone in the country – was visited by a protracted drought, the most severe recorded for 100 years since the start of meteorological records in the region, together with high temperatures.

In particular, tobacco-producing Yunnan province had a lingering drought that lasted from autumn through to the next spring. In most parts of neighboring Guizhou and Sichuan provinces and in Guangxi region, the drought also lasted for more than five months. 

Likewise, there were also droughts in Shandong province in east China, Henan province in central China and Gansu province in northwest China.

The adverse weather had a very negative impact on tobacco cultivation in the affected regions, and leaf tobacco production faces a reduced output.

Despite the negative weather condition, the tobacco industry, with assistance from the state, related industries, government agencies and all walks of life in society, is acting resolutely in a race against time to complete the transplantation of tobacco seedlings by the end of June.

After the outbreak of droughts in the aforesaid regions, China National Committee for Disaster Reduction and the Ministry of Civil Affairs, initiated their responses. The Ministry of Finance (MOF) and the Ministry of Civil Affairs allocated RMB185 million (US$26.5 million) in central government drought-fighting and relief subsidies to the affected. The MOF and the Ministry of Water Resources earmarked RMB155 million for drought-fighting funding. The Ministry of Agriculture initiated overall planning strategies to assist agricultural production affected by drought and managed to direct the affected regions to guarantee the spring production. The MOF also earmarked RMB30 million for drought-fighting funding for agricultural production. Meanwhile, all walks of life in society also extended various forms of assistance to support the drought-affected regions.

The tobacco industry has also been taking steps. By the end of March, the tobacco industry had extended over RMB280 million in donations to Yunnan and Guizhou provinces and Guangxi region to help local residents fight the droughts there. In particular, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (STMA) and China National Tobacco Corporation had extended RMB50 million to Yunnan province, RMB50 to Guizhou province and RMB20 million to Guangxi region. Meanwhile, tobacco manufacturing enterprises in the three regions donated RMB152 million and their staff members and workers also donated RMB8.4 million to the affected regions.

It was reported that in responding to the severe situation of protracted droughts, STMA is planning to allocate RMB2.398 billion to Yunnan province, RMB1.048 billion to Guizhou province and RMB116 million to Guangxi region respectively for the construction of infrastructure facilities for tobacco fields.

Thanks to efforts by all sides, the drought-affected regions have all made sufficient preparations for the transplantation of tobacco seedlings. In April and May, some rainfall brought some relief from the drought. So far, tobacco transplantation in the drought-affected regions has been basically completed.

 

Guizhou: protecting seedlings 

In late April, there was a lot of rainfall in Guizhou, with the ethnic Buyi and Miao autonomous prefecture in the southwestern part of the province embracing the first precipitation in 2010. A total of 19 counties and county-level cities had an accumulated precipitation of 25mm or more this time, contributing to alleviating the drought.

The tobacco industry of Guizhou was swift in seizing this fine opportunity to effectively protect tobacco seedlings. In organizing its efforts for fighting the drought and protecting seedlings, the tobacco monopoly administration of Buyi and Miao managed to give full play to the role of irrigation systems for tobacco fields to effectively alleviate water shortages during transplantation. By May 18, the prefecture had completed transplantation onto 178,000 mu (11,867 hectares) of fields, and had finished more than half of its drought combat and seed transplanting goals for the whole year.

By May 25, there had been no significant rainfall in the tobacco-producing Weinin county of Bijie prefecture in Guizhou since the start of the drought. As a result, the tobacco seedlings transplanted onto 12,094 mu (806 hectares) of fields all died due to a shortage of water. Local tobacco growers had to redouble efforts to fight the drought and save their crops.

Sichuan is a large tobacco-producing region, and also an important strategic high-quality leaf tobacco production base. Its annual leaf tobacco production capacity is the third largest in China. April is a crucial period for the development of tobacco seedlings in Sichuan. However, the severest drought in 50 years seriously impacted tobacco seedling development in some tobacco-growing areas in the province. 

Generally speaking, the drought hitting tobacco-growing areas in southern and northeastern parts of Sichuan was less severe while the drought in Panzhihua and Xichang prefectures in southwestern Sichuan was worse.

So far, the city-level tobacco monopoly administrations in Sichuan province have taken active steps to respond to the drought, mainly including the following points:

Firstly, the city-level tobacco monopoly administrations – which double as city-level state-run tobacco companies – have actively reformed the structure of tobacco crops and encouraged farmers to grow more tobacco on suitable drought-resistant fields.

Secondly, they have made full use of the irrigation systems on established tobacco fields while striving to find new water sources and reserving water resources as much as possible.

Thirdly, they have prepared various material supplies for fighting droughts, including those for pumping, transporting and depositing water. They have done a good job mobilizing, depositing and distributing supplies and have formulated and improved emergency plans for preventing further droughts.

Fourthly, they have managed to do advance, soil preparation and have swiftly covered the soil prepared with mulching film to preserve soil moisture after ridge forming.

Fifthly, they have strengthened later period management following the development of tobacco seedlings in order to foster strong seedlings with enhanced resistance.

And sixthly, they have adopted big-pit deep planting technology for tobacco cultivation in order to counter the effects of short-term droughts.

As of now, Sichuan province has completed the transplanting process.

However, since the beginning of May, such cities as Luzhou and Mianyang in Sichuan province have been hit hard by frequent abnormal weather conditions, including torrential rains and floods, which has seriously saturated the soil. Farmland soil is relatively impermeable and tobacco crops there grow slowly. Therefore, the cities hit hard by such adverse weather conditions have shifted their priority to field management to ensure timely fulfillment of leaf tobacco production and sales quotas for 2010.

 

Yunnan: application of science and technology 

Seriously impacted by the severe drought, the area of tobacco-growing fields with guaranteed water sources in Yunnan province – the largest tobacco-producing region in China – is only 3.0411 million mu, accounting for 49% of the total planned area for tobacco cultivation in the province. Therefore, the transplantation of tobacco in Yunnan this year faces a serious challenge.

The tobacco monopoly administration in Qujing City – a leading tobacco-growing zone in the province – has given full play to the great role of science and technology in fighting droughts, strengthening their role in fighting the severe drought hitting the zone. This has contributed to greatly improving the quality of transplantation work, which has become a major focus this year. 

In efforts to fight the severe drought, the tobacco monopoly administration in Qujing City has fostered strong, drought-resisting seedlings, adopted water-spray deep planting techniques and the scientific application of fertilizer as well as mulching film covering, soil water preservation and moisture retention technologies.

By May 15, Qujing City had transplanted tobacco seedlings onto 1.35 million mu of fields – 100% of the planned area for tobacco cultivation in the city for the year. As a result, Qujing City has won a sweeping victory in the fight against the severe drought and transplantation of tobacco seedlings this year. Tobacco cultivation is at the intertillage management stage.

Also by May 15, Yuxi City – another leading tobacco-growing zone in Yunnan – had transplanted tobacco seedlings onto 690,000 million mu – 100% of its planned area for tobacco-cultivation for 2010.

All the units under Yunnan Provincial Tobacco Monopoly Administration (YPTMA) have given full play to the major role of irrigation systems for tobacco fields in fulfilling transplanting tasks and have invested a total of RMB250 million in funding to fight the severe drought. After almost one month of effort, YPTMA has completed the transplanting process just ahead of the best season for tobacco growth.

Henan is a major tobacco-producing region in central China. Although there was lingering adverse weather and relatively low temperatures over Henan with tobacco seedlings were growing, contributing to the late maturation of tobacco seedlings this year, which meant that transplantation was somewhat delayed, Henan province managed to shorten the period of transplantation of tobacco seedlings by a full week compared to normal by accelerating transplantation efforts.

Meanwhile, Henan province managed to tighten control over the distribution of tobacco seedlings to farmers, took steps to further regulate the contract management, supplied tobacco seedlings to farmers in strict accordance to the contractual provisions for quantities and put an end to tobacco cultivation without a contract or in excess of contractual stipulations in its efforts to prevent the growing and harvest of leaf tobacco in excess of quota limitations.

All tobacco-growing zones in Henan have paid great attention to the quality of transplantation, have organized technicians to go deep into tobacco fields to offer technical transplantation guidance to farmers, have exercised strict controls over the application of transplanting technology in and have rationally determined the optimum density for seedlings in the field.

By May 27, Henan province had fully completed transplantation onto 788,000 mu of fields. Presently, tobacco crops planted in all parts of Henan are growing well. Now Henan province is concentrating on it efforts to further improve its management over leaf tobacco production and strengthening field management.

Generally speaking, it is quite an achievement that the tobacco-growing regions in southern and central China have been able to complete transplanting tobacco seedlings given the scope of the natural disasters that have affected them, particularly the lingering droughts. Moreover, the tobacco crops in these regions are growing well despite adverse weather conditions. 

In reality, early planning and scientific management are among the key factors leading to the Chinese tobacco industry’s the fight against severe natural disasters and transplanting tobacco seedlings this year.