Tobacco Farming

[metisdead]

While a certain member has made some valid points, there were also a number of trolling nonsense posts which have been removed. Inflammatory posts have also been removed.

[Dancealot]

However indeed i would like to discuss farming aspects on this subject matter now.

Practical issues arise and i am interested in how the leaves are picked and sorted out. I am told hand picking tobacco leaf is very dificult for a novice..

Picking process goes in phases and 4 times in 80 days the field has to be hand picked.

Phase 1 the brown and yellow leaf picking and have to leave the green leafs on the plant.

Phase 2 wait a few days untill the green leafs are brown or yellow and start picking again.

Phase 3 see phase 2

Phase 4 Cycle the phases untill the field has been pillaged.

The kilo price is high this year so i will be extra motivated. Going rate on quality stuff is B70/kilo

[IsaanAussie]

Allright, the thread is saved and dont have to worrie about it giong

, just yet.

@ IssaanAussie, thanks for the usefull comments also Mr. Neversure/Mr Loong and lets not forget Mr. cooked.

We are still here,spleens emptied and comments that were out of place removed, as they should be. Glad Jack's picture survived I like the man and his attitude.

But I digress. There are a couple of old timers in a village near here who always have a few plants on the go. I tried what I would best describe as a "reefer" one offered me once and was not impressed, but the herbicide usage does interest me and I will look into that. A bit fearfull of tobacco virus etc.. so if I try it it will be planted somewhere remote.

[khaoboy]

A good starting point for baccy growing could be a trip to the 'Chiangmai Cricket Sixes', the week before Songkrahn. go the the 'Floggers and Robbers' tent and talk to those guys. They are mostly ex-Zimbabweans and run STEC, the main baccy business in Chiangmai.

[xen]

Here is a list of tobacco plant diseases from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tobacco_diseases . There are some tobacco varieties that are resistant to some of them but nearly all can easily cross over to tomatoes, egg plant chilli , potato, crops.

[slapout]

My grandfather, who was a smoker raised a 2 acre garden. Somehow he determined that there was a virus which would transfer from a smoker to tomatoes. This was back in the late 1940's. He washed his hands with soap and even exchanged his work shoes for rubber boots when he ventured into the garden. I can remember he baring my dad and uncle from the garden as they smoked. Chewing tobacco did not seem to be of concern. I see more of what many people deemed nonsense being verfied by modern science every year.

[Dancealot]

Today i learned that if there is no money, no pesticides are bought and instead a few farmers go into the fields and pick the caterpillars or any other bugs by hand and preferably use them for tonight's dinner..

[IsaanAussie]

Today i learned that if there is no money, no pesticides are bought and instead a few farmers go into the fields and pick the caterpillars or any other bugs by hand and preferably use them for tonight's dinner..

Well something has to kill us all. Pesticide laced cigarettes? When you give them the money for the "cides" ask what flavours they can get.

[Dancealot]

If you want to put it that way; that is your cide of the story and it is noted. Let's see

[Gary A]

Diddums needs to rethink his approach to saving mankind. What is the worst threat to mankind? I'd have to say that it happens to be motorcycles, cars, trucks and buses. They cause massive air pollution, crash into each other and run innocent pedestrians down.

Those irresponsible companies that build those threats take no responsibility for the damage those vehicles cause. People who work in those factories have no conscience. Governments pay no attention. C'mon diddums, take a stand against this serious threat.

[klubex99]

Of course there are always more reasons to grow something when you are viewing it for selfish reasons and care less about others.

I started reading this thread because I thought it may contain lots of good information about what to me is a very ecconomical crop to farm, but saw how quickly it was hijacked by the anti-smoking lobbyists, I thought it nevessary to chirp in my tuppence worth.

This section is supposed to be about sharing knowledge of farming and discussion, not as a platform for finger poking at individuals whom in my honest opinion are just looking for ecconomical use from their land.

Many people farm for business purposes and so ethics based on the limited views of only a certain percentage of individuals should never be considered. Business is for making money, and if the guy can make good revenue from farming tobacco, then so be it, he has all the right in the world to farm a base product that has a huge demand. He is hardly a drug dealer.

If people are going to smoke the product, then they are going to smoke it, no matter who grows it. There will always be tobacco in the world to be smoked.

In the USA 'obesity' from over eating and lack of exercise has overtaken smoking as the number 1 preventable cause of death with 1 in 4 Americans being classed as obese which is a huge figure compared to smokers. Yet you would not walk up to someone and comment on how fat they were, and that they should not eat so much and exercise more... Nope, that would be socially unacceptable behaviour, yet it is acceptible to comment to someone that their smoking is a filthy and dangerous habit and that they should stop it..... in essence, what's the difference?

This division between smoking and obesity is possibly the cause of the year on year increase in fat people, and its not just the USA, it is increasing all over the world, even here in Thailand.

Did you know that fit and healthy people are more of a burden on health services and country ecconomies than people who smoke?... It's true.

Someone who looks after themselves, don't smoke, drink only a small amount of alcohol and watch their diets and exercise more, tend to live a lot longer into old age, which means they use up welfare and pension services as well as are usually in and out of hospital as bits and pieces start to go wrong as they get into their 70s, 80, and 90s. They are a huge burden on those critical and financial resources.

Yet a smoker will usually peg it at a resonable age, and maybe use only a small amount of these same resources. Also, as I am from the UK I can only comment on UK stats, but smokers currently contribute around £3 Billion to the Tax revenue system every yaer, and if everyone stopped smoking overnight which a lot of people seem to want, then you can expect your income tax to rise by 3% and with an extra 100,000 people every year living longer, using valuable health resources and dipping into the pension fund.

It could see an income tax rise of 5% .. Which is all great because it would give the anti-smoking lobbyists something to replace their moaning with.

If we want to bend down to the 'purists' among us and stop the drinking as well as the smokers.... expect up to 10% income tax rise to absorb the losses. While of course you wait 12 years on the waiting list for a cateract operation.

A farming business is for making money, and in business there should be no room for moral debate.

[Dancealot]

I'm sure you can google this somewhere but I saw the guys going through the fields gathering the lower, drier leaves of the plants every day. Taken back, fastened to a baton (13 leaves per baton I think, not more, not less), hoisted up with pullies to the top of the curing shed. This is the Burley tobacco. Recently Virginia tobacco has been cultivated, this is the one that is cured in an oven. Some nice pictures on http://www.swisstaba...&page=3〈=de

I also remember when the quality was found to be unacceptable in certain years and the whole lot was burnt, nice cigar smell for miles.

If I smoked, I might grow some for private consumption. My son in law tried it and saw that the price of fertiliser and pesticides made rice cultivation more worthwhile.

I hear this a lot. The price of fertilisor or pesticides is a big criterium when it comes to choosing which crop to grow.

Informative article btw.. I gather you can read german as well .

[David006]

oh dear a farming question launching into ethics....better not mention the pollution of air and water refining rubber ,palm oil etc etc I guess...lol ....And the stink of pig farms! Sorry IA.....

On topic.. been reading a lot about the US slave/indentured labour /transportee trade associated with tobacco farming...seems to me that it is a hard work product ( assuming you ain't got slaves or) given all the things that can go wrong ?

Hey but that is just me..I find watching rubber trees grow very tiring these days.

[Dancealot]

oh dear a farming question launching into ethics....better not mention the pollution of air and water refining rubber ,palm oil etc etc I guess...lol ....And the stink of pig farms! Sorry IA.....

On topic.. been reading a lot about the US slave/indentured labour /transportee trade associated with tobacco farming...seems to me that it is a hard work product ( assuming you ain't got slaves or) given all the things that can go wrong ?

Hey but that is just me..I find watching rubber trees grow very tiring these days.

Manual labour is involved but purely on a volentary basis.

[Gary A]

Does rice feel pain when you cut off the heads? Are rubber trees tortured when you slice their bark? Raising animals for the purpose of killing them and eating them is the ultimate atrocity.

As for myself, I'm now in Jomtien and must see if I can find decent sausage to take home and an edible steak for dinner. I may consider quitting smoking because tobacco plants may suffer when their leaves are cut off.

Born again Christians, vegetarians and many ex-smokers will continue to live their miserable lives and preach to the rest of us about how stupid and irresponsible we are for actually enjoying life.

I'd be quite upset if I died from nothing.

[shaggy1969]

Diddums,

I think everyone knows your thoughts on tobacco farming now.

Maybe it would be a good idea to start up your own thread on why tobacco farming is so terrible and then hopefully leave this one alone.

[Dancealot]

It is nice sitting back and watching.

Tobacco is grown as a crop for one reason...to smoke it.

To grow a crop that its only purpose is to make people addicts, unhealthy and kill them in a slow and horrible way....well, just sayin that I would never grow it as a commercial crop.

But each to their own and I can look at myself in the mirror.

I mean, its not like there are no other crops that can be grown right ?

You are sounding like a thai cigarette-wrap with those nasty pictures. Whatever i do i can t keep my eyes of it when its on the table.

[loong]

But each to their own and I can look at myself in the mirror.

Except for vampires, we all can.

If I looked in the mirror and somebody else looked back at me, I think that I would have been smoking something stronger than tobacco.

[endure]

The topic is 'Tobacco Farming'. If you have no useful input to the OP's queries then don't post.

[NeverSure]

Geez, I hung around really hoping to learn about the possibility of growing tobacco in Thailand. Taxes, who to sell to, prices, costs, labor, drying/curing, possibility of making a consumer product rather than wholesaling, cost and availability of plants or seed, varieties which do best, time of year, length of season, harvesting, pesticides and herbicides needed, soil type and drainage needed - you know, about tobacco farming.

I've read the whole danged thread and even tried to contribute a little of what tiny bit I've seen of it.

Did anyone ever decide a thing about the feasibility of it?

[IsaanAussie]

Try this slideshow for the grow, harvest, and dryig bits. One caption gives a cost to string the leaves.

http://royivankoe.co...arch2011-flash/

Also try google "tobacco farming Thailand" for other stuff on topic

One good article with pricing is here

http://www.adamsint.com/Press/arid_thai_region.html

[IsaanAussie]

Hey Dave,

I believethe tax revenue here is about 3.5 to 4% of tax total. Actually a reference chart in pdf format on the first link I had above. Didnt bother to download it as I had just uploaded another gasper.

[IsaanAussie]

Try this slideshow for the grow, harvest, and dryig bits. One caption gives a cost to string the leaves.

http://royivankoe.co...arch2011-flash/

Also try google "tobacco farming Thailand" for other stuff on topic

One good article with pricing is here

http://www.adamsint....hai_region.html

Just had a better look at the adams site. Most of the total process is shown on other pages including seasons etc...

[David48]

Try this slideshow for the grow, harvest, and dryig bits. One caption gives a cost to string the leaves.

http://royivankoe.co...arch2011-flash/

IA ... frigging brilliant ... ... a rare accolade from me.

The photography, the imagery, the notation ... 1st class.

Irrelevant of the subject ... in awe of the presentation ... I certainly learnt something there.

[Mosha]

1/2 of these posts need moving to the health forum

[wigantojapan]

hahah just opened up a post in the general section maybe it should be in the health section as well

[RedBullHorn]

There is ??? A health forum ?

[IsaanAussie]

Anyone had a chance to read the stuff I linked today. For farmers considering growing a tobacco crop (the OP's subject) it is informative if in part a little dated. The bottom line is the company scheme is built around ensuring a farmer growing a rai of tobacco had the ability to make 10,000 baht if he did the work.

[David48]

Anyone had a chance to read the stuff I linked today. For farmers considering growing a tobacco crop (the OP's subject) it is informative if in part a little dated. The bottom line is the company scheme is built around ensuring a farmer growing a rai of tobacco had the ability to make 10,000 baht if he did the work.

COUGH ...

Try this slideshow for the grow, harvest, and dryig bits. One caption gives a cost to string the leaves.

http://royivankoe.co...arch2011-flash/

IA ... frigging brilliant ... ... a rare accolade from me.

The photography, the imagery, the notation ... 1st class.

Irrelevant of the subject ... in awe of the presentation ... I certainly learnt something there.

[DerkMR]

More seriously we are working hard with chili pest issues here and have nailed a few that have involved serious chemical usage before. One is a caterpillar similar to the one that likes tobacco. Need a more organic approach to a similar issue, PM me. Normal thrips and mites stuff everywhere on the net.

If not tried now you can test the Neem-Tree - Sadao in Thai.

If you can get, best is Oil to spray.

I used Neem when planting, but the rests left over after pressing the oil out. They still contain a lot of "ugly taste" and get mixed into the soil around every plant. Usual biting or sucking insects just stay away after the first try

Bye,

Derk