Die Bodenkultur - Journal for Land Management, Food and Environment

I. Turšić, A. Butorac, F. Bašić, M. Čavlek, M. Mesić, Z. Djaković, Kisić, M. Tratnik and B. Svitlica:

Effect of Fifteen Years of Tobacco Production in Monoculture and in Crop Rotation on the Yield and Quality of Flue-Cured Tobacco under Agroecological Conditions of Croatia

15 years of Long Term Investigation

Summary

Typical crop rotations, with tobacco in Croatia include wheat, maize and soybean. The investigation was set up on the experimental field of the Tobacco Institute and was planted in monoculture, two-crop (wheat, tobacco), three-crop (maize, wheat, tobacco), four-crop (maize, soybean, wheat, tobacco) and five-crop (maize, soybean, wheat, oil-seed rape and tobacco) rotation. Standard agricultural practices, based on the experience gained in ecological conditions in Croatia, were applied to the crops included in the crop rotation. Tobacco grown in monoculture had a yield of 2.63 t/ha in the first year (1987) compared to 1.39 t/ha in the fifteenth year (2001). A significantly lower yield was obtained for the first time in the fourth year of tobacco monoculture compared to tobacco grown in crop rotation. Tobacco grown in crop rotation had a higher percent age of high quality leaves. Key words: Flue-cured tobacco, monoculture, crop rotation, yield and quality of tobacco.