COMPARISON OF NICOTIANA TABACUM L CULTIVATION IN DIFFERENT AGRONOMIC, GEOGRAPHIC AND CLIMATIC CONDITIONS OF KASARAGOD DIST. OF KERALA, INDIA

ABSTRACT: Nicotiana tabacum L commonly called tobacco is an annual plant belongs to family solanaceae. In India two species of tobacco, Nicotiana tabacum and Nicotiana rustica are cultivated .Tobacco can grow in different types of soil and in various climates. Kasaragod dist is the only one dist of Kerala that produce Nicotiana tabacum L. Pullur Periya, Ajanoor and Pallikara panchayath are the main areas of tobacco cultivation of this Dist. Here Nicotiana tabacum L is cultivated in different agronomic and geographical conditions. UV Spectrophotometric analysis reveals that tobacco cultivated in kuniya region (225 ft MSL) of Pullur Periya panchayath have more nicotine content (0.598mg/g ) due to the nutritive soil present in this region compared to the tobacco(nicotine content 0.466mg/g) cultivated in sea coast area (21 ft MSL) of Pallikara that belongs to Pallikara panchayath. Soil of kuniya region is black have more organic carbon (1.89 %) than soil of Pallikara region (0.1578%). Tobacco cultivation is an ecofriendly cultivation and use only biofertilizers. But today cultivars face problems such as lack of experienced expert workers, tourism of coastal area, influence of building developers, rise in the cost of manures etc. Today's agricultural report says the position of Kasaragod dist in tobacco cultivation is low than that of other regions. This endemic ecofriendly cultivation must be protected by the welfare of local farmers