China: Research Institute Succeeds in Developing Mountainous Tobacco Fields Deep Cultivator

Source from:  TobaccoChina Online 06/25/2012

Chongqing City Tobacco Science Research Institute in southwest China's Chongqing City has succeeded in developing a type of mountainous tobacco fields deep cultivators, as a result of strengthening of efforts to solve hard technical problems by its scientific-technological researchers over the past year since its establishment in 2011. It was reported that the type of mountainous tobacco fields deep cultivators has been first of its kind developed in China, and Chongqing City Tobacco Science Research Institute possesses independent intellectual property rights to it. As small-sized farm machinery has been extensively applied over recent years, mini-tillers have been generally used in the cultivation of tobacco fields in China, which has to some extent contributed to lowering the intensity of labor, and raising the efficiency of work. However, existing min-tillers have always been unable to produce desirable results in deep cultivation. As a result, it is easy to form hardened plough pans at the depth of 15-20 centimeters beneath the ground surface, which is not beneficial for tobacco crops to take roots deeply and absorb nutrition. Since 2011, in efforts to solve hard technical problems in deep cultivation of soil on tobacco fields in mountainous areas, Chongqing City Tobacco Science Research Institute has cooperated with farm machinery experts with the Engineering and Technology School of Southwest University in jointly solving hard technical problems in developing deep cultivators suitable for use in tobacco fields in mountainous areas. After many times of improvement, a first prototype of the mountainous tobacco fields deep cultivator has been determined. Leaders of Chongqing City Tobacco Science Research Institute said that results of typical field demonstration in tobacco-growing areas show that the type of mountainous tobacco fields deep cultivators is capable of making deep cultivation at a depth of 40 centimeters and deeper, and is simple in structure, is of a lower cost of production, can generate a high efficiency of operation, is highly compatible, is easy to operate and maintain, etc. In particular, as the type of mountainous tobacco fields deep cultivators is easy to operate, the biggest problem that the operation of existing mini-tillers involves a high intensity of labor has been fundamentally solved. The type of mountainous tobacco fields deep cultivators is therefore well received by tobacco growers in the areas designated to execute pilot projects to this effect. On June 9, 2011, Chongqing City Tobacco Science Research Institute was officially inaugurated as the only tobacco science research institute of the tobacco industry established in close cooperation between an enterprise and a university in China. Presently, Chongqing City Tobacco Science Research Institute boasts 34 research staff members, including three researchers and nine associate researchers. Twelve of them hold doctor's degrees and 14 of them hold master's degrees. Over the past year, Chongqing City Tobacco Science Research Institute has started more than 20 research projects including basic tobacco fields treatment, development of deep cultivation machinery, tobacco seedlings development farms temperature and humidity monitoring systems development, etc. Enditem