SWABI: A new variety of flue-cured Virginia (FCV) tobacco developed by a Brazil-based multinational company has been cultivated by growers in Swabi district with the help of Pakistan Tobacco Company (PTC) and its yield is much better than other varieties of the crop.

Jabeen Qamar, leaf manager, and other PTC officials said this during a programme organised on Thursday here at Yar Hussain where the new variety had been grown on experimental basis by the company and growers at six different locations.

The programme was aimed at educating the growers about the new variety.

The officials asked the growers to cultivate it from the next tobacco growing season.

One of the officials said that if the growers worked hard they could earn high returns for their crop.

The new variety has been grown for the first time in Pakistan.

The fertile land of Swabi, Mardan and Buner has been selected by the company officials for growing it on experimental basis.

“We have convinced the farmers to cultivate the new variety. From growing nursery to full grown crop we stood side by side with the farmers. And now we are also working with them at the curing stage,” said Mr Qamar.

The officials said that they had regularly visited the six growing fields in the district while guiding the farmers to take adequate measures at different stages of crop growing, using pesticide and irrigation.

They claimed that the new variety was fit for the climatic condition of Pakistan’s tobacco growing areas.

“It is more productive than other hybrid and conventional tobacco varieties grown by the farmers in the district and elsewhere in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” said crop development officer Mohammad Salim.

The new variety could yield more than other varieties due to its disease resistance nature, he said and added that the quality of the new variety was also much better than other varieties and it could help the purchasing companies and tobacco entrepreneurs to export tobacco crop and earn adequate foreign exchange for the country.

The growers have welcomed the introduction of the new variety.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2014