Tobacco Research Institute. Photo. Luis Alberto DH / RA
The varietal strategy to face the chemical degradation of the soils in tobacco areas was one of the significant results of the Tobacco Research Institute of San Antonio Baños. This result was used for the Provincial Award for Science, Technology and Environment (CITMA), 2017. This evidences the link between ariguanabense science and agriculture.
The alkalinization of soils limits the development of the tobacco plant, since it requires a pH between 5.5 and 6.5, for optimum growth and development. None of the strategies used to correct this problem takes into account the ability of our cultivars to develop under these conditions. This problem allowed a group of researchers, headed by the lawyer Liset Monzón Herrera, engineer Abdón Joaquín Trémols González and technicians Leysi Álvarez Barrabí, Mariam Díaz Suárez and Dailyn Atencio Reyes to promote this strategy.
According to its main author, the objective of the research is to define a varietal strategy to face the chemical degradation of the soils, taking into account the tolerance index, expressed in some of the current black tobacco cultivars. For this, a two-factor experiment was designed and the fresh mass of the leaves and stem, the diameter of the stem and the height of the plant were evaluated; In addition, the tolerance index was estimated.
As a result, the cultivars drastically decreased their growth when the pH was increased. Havana 92 and Criollo 2010 varieties have the potential to be used in a varietal strategy that reduces the negative impact of planting tobacco on a soil with pH values close to alkalinity.