Crop Improvement

·         To develop drought tolerant, high yielding, better quality bidi, chewing and rustica tobacco varieties.

·         Breeding variety for multiple resistances to diseases and insect pests.

·         Breeding tobacco for less health risk factors.

·         Tailoring the genotypes suitable for alternate uses.

·         Heterosis breeding for developing high yielding commercial hybrids

·         Development of genotypes suitable for multiple and intercropping systems.

·         Enhancement of genetic resource, maintenance, evaluation, storage and documentation.

Resource Management

·         To develop agro-techniques for the new varieties being released from time to time.

·         To evolve low cost agro-technologies.

·         To find out nutrient requirement and changes in the chemical and technological characteristics of tobacco with the changes in the cropping systems.

·         Nitrogen saving through the use of bio-fertilizers under INM.

·         Economic evaluation of tobacco with other alternate crops.

·         Work on WUE, moisture conservation through organic matter & mulches.

·         To find out the new cropping pattern for bidi, chewing and rustica tobacco growing areas due to increased irrigation facility.

·         Irrigation requirements of rustica tobacco.

·         Quality evaluation of samples of breeding, agronomy, plant physiology and plant protection experiments.

·         Establishment of critical limits for S and Zn in bidi tobacco.

·         Monitoring of physico-chemical and biological properties of soil from experiments involving INM and different tobacco based or non-tobacco based cropping systems.

·         Screening of genotypes for locating a K-rich genotype for enriching of bidi tobacco with K.

·         To find out biochemical basis for diseases, insect pests, nematodes resistance for rapid screening of varieties.

·         Monitoring of different varieties/genotypes as well as samples of agronomical experiments for TSNAs as well as smoke tar, nicotine, CO and smoke phenols.

·         Monitoring chewing and rustica tobacco varieties/genotypes for TSNAs.

·         Development of deficiency/toxicity symptoms of major, secondary and micronutrients as well as their documentation.

·         Screening for drought and salt tolerant genotypes.

·         Seed germination/viability studies in relation to different storage/packaging materials (methods).

·         Studies on root distribution patterns of different varieties.

·         Management of suckers, weeds and orobanche in different types of tobacco.

Crop Protection

·         Testing of botanicals and bio-agents for their efficacy against damping-off and nematodes in nursery and foliar (fungal) diseases in field.

·         Development of integrated management systems/schedules through physical, cultural and biological means for important nursery diseases and weeds.

·         Search for resistance to damping-off, leaf-curl, frog-eye spot and root-knot diseases with ultimate objectives of developing resistant varieties.

·         Assessment of avoidable losses due to nematodes other than root-knot and unknown disorders.

·         Evaluation of barrier crops in restricting migration of virus vectors of leaf curl, chlorotic mottle and rustica mosaic.

·         Monitoring resistance development in pathogens to recommended chemicals.

·         Demonstration of impact of newly generated technologies on large scale for nursery and field crops.

·         To transfer mosaic and root-knot resistance in bidi tobacco varieties in vogue (collaborative programmes with Plant Breeding discipline).

·         Monitoring important insect pests of tobacco and development of IPM strategies or schedules for their management.

·         Studies on botanical insecticides, chitin inhibitors and sex pheromones for control of the insect pests.

·         Bio-ecological studies on newer pests which are likely to appear due to change in cropping pattern and irrigation facilities.

·         Development and testing of IPM for management of major insects of tobacco.

·         Monitoring and management of pests in different tobacco based cropping systems.

·         Characterization and identification of strains through morphology and physico-chemical properties.

·         Evaluation of biological methods for insect pest management.