Curing of Virginia tobacco is in progress with the new mechanism of ‘rocket barn’ in Jaganat village of Swabi. — Dawn

SWABI: Pakistan Tobacco Company (PTC) has introduced a modern way of curing Virginia tobacco on an experimental basis in three districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

PTC officials on condition of anonymity told Dawn here on Wednesday that two experts from Bangladesh were supervising the project named ‘rocket barn’ in the tobacco growing districts, including Mansehra, Mardan and Swabi.

The method was also introduced in Sialkot and Mianwali districts of Punjab, they added.

They said Sirajul Haq, research and development manager, British American Tobacco (BAT) Bangladesh, and Ghulam Rabani, BAT research officer, during their 10-day stay in Pakistan finalised the plan after visiting different areas.

Under the new mechanism, the officials said mechanical operational changes had been fused with modern techniques to regulate temperature and air movement compared to the conventional system of curing tobacco. Air drift and heat are the key factors for an accurate curing process of Virginia tobacco leaves, the officials maintained.

“Our objective is to reduce the consumption of fuel wood by 50 per cent,” Jabeen Qamar, PTC leaf manager in Yar Husain purchasing centre, said. Another objective that this project will serve is to utilise local farm wastage as barn fuel to reduce the growing costs as well as to control deforestation and environmental degradation, he added.

BAT Bangladesh launched the same idea in 2012 with the modification of 150 existing barns from conventional to rocket barn. Today, they have converted more than 50 per cent of the country’s barns into the new mechanism due to its success, PTC officials said.

Initially, they said over 20 per cent fuel wood was conserved, adding goal was to save at least 50 per cent fuel wood consumption while aligning the system with more productivity and crop sustainability to increase the net profit for tobacco farmers.

The officials said rocket barn curing also reduced the duration of curing process from seven days to six, further helping the farmers to avoid delay in leaf harvesting which occurs due to unavailability of curing space in various cases. Delayed harvesting normally causes poor yield and low quality due to leaf losses in fields, they maintained.

There are over 28,000 tobacco furnaces in Pakistan and in each one the curing process is conducted over 10 times each season with each curing process consuming about 24 mounds of fuel wood costing over Rs19,000. After 10 processes of curing, the total cost of fuel wood rises to Rs192,000, according to the officials.

Tauseef Ahmad, who supervises the project along with regional manager Javed Rasool, said the farmers who visited the two locally established rocket barns appreciated the new model and expressed desire to switch over from the conventional way of curing to the new method.

Juma Khan, who cures his crop in the rocket barn, said it was not an easy task to switch over to the new system, but once the farmers saw the benefits they would readily adopt it. “It is much more beneficial and I no longer prefer the conventional method,” he said.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2015

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