China's Tobacco Industry Develops Tobacco-Growing Zoning Project

Source from:  China Tobacco magazine 07/28/2008

The tobacco industry of China has developed a national tobacco-growing zoning project that makes in-depth research of the relationship between the ecological environment in tobacco-growing regions and the quality of leaf tobacco produced, on the basis of collection and analysis of large quantities of leaf tobacco, soil samples, meteorological data, etc from the tobacco-growing regions across China. On July 18, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (STMA) - the regulator of China's tobacco industry - held in Beijing a meeting to technically appraise the project of national tobacco-growing zoning project, with the participation of STMA Deputy Directors Zhang Baozhen and He Zehua. At the meeting, a panel of 11 experts from the tobacco industry and other sectors meticulously conducted technical appraisal of the project of national tobacco-growing zoning, recognizing that it has met the relevant advanced world levels. The panel of experts unanimously gave their approval to the project, and proposed that steps be taken to accelerate application of achievements in the development of the project of national tobacco-growing zoning in all parts of China. The development of the project of national tobacco-growing zoning was undertaken by Zhengzhou Tobacco Research Institute, the Agricultural Resources and Agricultural Zoning Research Institute of China Agricultural Sciences Academy and other relevant institutions. It is a major scientific-technological research project registered for development by the STMA in 2003. In the development of the project, the research institutes, for the first time ever, comprehensively applied the method of correlativity, the analytic hierarchy process, the membership function method and other modern statistical and analytical technologies to develop a scientific and reliable tobacco ecological suitability appraisal system and a leaf tobacco quality appraisal system. The project of national tobacco-growing zoning calls for the establishment of five Grade One tobacco-growing zones and 26 Grade Two tobacco-growing zones in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, the Yellow River and Huaihe River valleys, southeast China and north China, further defining the sphere of the tobacco ecological suitability zones in China. On the basis of research of tobacco-growing zoning in China, the project, in light of the socioeconomic situation of the tobacco-growing zones and their regional comparable advantages, for the first time ever makes a proposal for the structure of advantageous tobacco-producing regions in China, the distribution of potential advantageous tobacco-producing regions in the country and their future development layout. Under the project, the tobacco industry has for the first time ever developed the China Tobacco-Growing Zoning Information System on the basis of the Generalized Information System (GIS) platform, to which the tobacco industry of China possess independent intellectual property rights, and has developed seven specialized databanks on the quality of leaf tobacco produced by leading tobacco-producing regions in China, their leaf tobacco production, etc, contributing to providing decision-making support for the tobacco production management departments at all levels, and providing a reliable technical platform for generalizing achievements in the work of tobacco-growing zoning, follow-up appraisal of the ecological conditions and leaf tobacco quality of major tobacco-producing regions, for the renewal of data in this respect, etc. Enditem