• Submitted by: lena campos
• Business and Economy
• 09 / 07 / 2012

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Tobacco growers in Vueltabajo, cradle to the best tobacco, will start tomorrow by watering the seedbeds as they initiate the 2012 campaign.

Labors will extend to all fields dedicated to that crop in the Pinar del Rio province, declared the Master in Science, Enrique Cruz, director of this sector in that western territory.

Watering of the seedlings precedes planting of this economically important crop, which will take place in the second half of October.

Known decades ago as Vueltabajo, Pinar del Rio contributes 70 percent of national production of the leaf that provide most of the covers used to roll the habanos or Havana cigars worthily considered the world's best.

The beginning of the campaign activates anew the regional plantation where the aromatic leaf has been cultivated for centuries and promoted by immigrants from Canary Islands.

From the lands of this zone, 140 kilometers west of Havana, come the raw material to elaborate famous cigar brands like Vegas Robaina, stamp that pays tribute to grower Don Alejandro Robaina, deceased in 2010.

Optimum soils, favourable climate and the skill of farmers guarantee excellent and abundant harvests in towns like San Luis, San Juan and Martinez, assured Cruz.

Popular wisdom and modern technologies combine in tobacco farms that apply research center studies of the island.

Only the application of double row planting made it possible to increase plant population by 26 percent in the same land surface while yields grow in the same proportion, told Prensa Latina Nelson Rodriguez, director of the Experimental Tobacco Station.

In this way -he added-, we have been able to grow in planting areas without adding more farmers to care for them.

Destined to preserve the soil, the zero labor methodology is also promoted by farmers with organic fertilizers, without removing the soil, explained the expert.

Source: Prensa Latina