Research on the Technology of Food-Tobacco Integration for Improving Quality and Efficiency

The tobacco industry is an important economic sector in Fukuquan City, Qiannan Prefecture, Guizhou Province. It serves as a crucial foundation for the high-quality development of modern tobacco agriculture. The cultivation of a single crop cannot meet the needs of modern agricultural development. To achieve increased income, it is necessary to integrate grain and tobacco, enhance the overall agricultural efficiency, and provide effective guarantees for the quality improvement and upgrading of the agricultural industry [1]. Previous research results indicate that, the integrated cultivation model of “tobacco-sweet potato” can effectively promote the growth of tobacco plants and significantly reducing the occurrence diseases [2,3]. Qiannan Prefecture in Guizhou Province is an important high-quality tobacco production area. Luping Town, as a typical tobacco-growing village in the county, has representative terrain, climate, soil conditions and farming habits within the region.

Moreover, the local area is actively exploring the development model of grain-tobacco integration (such as tobacco-bean, tobaccosweet potato intercropping), providing an ideal practical site for this research. This study systematically evaluates the technical system for improving the quality and efficiency of tobacco based on grain-tobacco integration, aiming to establish production technical norms for intercropping tobacco - sweet potatoes and promote their application, providing theoretical support and practical demonstrations for the improvement of tobacco leaf quality and comprehensive benefits under the grain-tobacco integration model.

Materials

Using the tobacco variety “Yunyan 87”, and the sweet potato varieties “Shangtu 19”, “Qianyu 26” and “Qianyu 11” as materials. The experiment was conducted from April to October 2025 at Liushan Tobacco Station in LuPing Town, Qianan Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province.

Experiment Design

The experiment adopted a randomized block design. Different varieties of sweet potatoes (A1 was the commercial sweet potato variety 19, A2 was the Guizhou sweet potato variety 26, A3 was the Guizhou sweet potato variety 11) and the time of transplanting the sweet potato seedlings (V1 was May 15th, V2 was May 30th, V3 was June 15th) were used in the intercropping of tobacco-sweet potatoes. Tobacco alone was used as the control (CK). A total of 5 treatments were set up; each treatment plot was 18 square meters, with 3 replications. The row and plant spacing of tobacco was 120 cm × 50 cm. Transplanting was carried out in mid-April, and tobacco leaf harvesting ended on August 10th. Sweet potatoes or soybeans were intercropped on the tobacco ridges on both sides of the tobacco plants (with a distance of 30 cm from the tobacco plants), and the sweet potatoes were harvested at the end of September. The management measures of the tobacco fields were in accordance with the local tobacco production technical plan, and no additional fertilization was provided for the intercropping.

Measurement Indicators and Methods

Tobacco Yield-Quality

The determination of the indicators (economic characteristics and chemical composition) was carried out according to the methods described in the literature [4].

Economic Effectiveness

The calculation formula is as follows: Total cost = Cost of tobacco planting + Cost of sweet potatoes planting, Total income = Tobacco output × Tobacco price + sweet potatoes output × Price of sweet potatoes, Net income = Total income - Total cost.

The Effect of Intercropping on the Quality of Tobacco Leaves

The Effect of Intercropping on the Economic Characteristics of Tobacco Leaves

There are significant differences among the various treatments. In terms of the proportion of medium and above grade tobacco in the total output, treatments A1V1, A1V2 and A2V1 outperformed the other treatments (Table 1).

Table 1:The Economic characteristics of intercropping tobacco-sweet potatoes system.

The Effect of the Chemical Composition and Its Coordination of Tobacco Leaves

All the total nitrogen, nicotine (except A2V1), potassium (except A3V3), and chlorine in the samples met the standards for high-quality tobacco leaves. However, the total sugar content in all the treatments was relatively high, and the reducing sugar content was only slightly closer to that of high-quality tobacco leaves in the A3V1 treatment (the other treatments were all higher) (Table2).

Table 2:The Economic characteristics of intercropping tobacco-sweet potatoes system.

The contents of reducing sugar/total sugar, reducing sugar/ nicotine (except for the CK treatment) and potassium/chlorine met the standards for high-quality tobacco leaves. However, nicotine/ total nitrogen only met the standards for A1V2, A1V3, A2V1, and A3V1(Table 3).

Table 3:The Chemical composition coordination of C3F on intercropping tobacco-sweet potatoes system.

The Effect of Intercropping on the Economic Effectiveness of Tobacco Field

The combination is best for A1V2, followed by A1V1(Table 4).

Table 4:The Economic effectiveness of tobacco field on intercropping tobacco-sweet potatoes system (Unit: RMB/ha).

In terms of economic traits, the three treatments A1V1, A1V2 and A2V1 outperformed the others. In terms of chemical composition and coordination, the three treatments A1V1, A1V2 and A2V1 were relatively close to the standards of high-quality tobacco leaves. Considering the yield of sweet potatoes and the economic benefits of the tobacco fields, ultimately, A1V2 was the best, followed by A1V1.

Jun Zhong wrote the manuscript and the first author. Xizhong Zhang and Qiang Li are the co-corresponding author. All authors contributed to manuscript revision, read, and approved the submitted version.

This study was supported by the China Tobacco Guizhou Industrial Co Ltd Qiannan state Company project (2025-522700-2- 7-0071) and Hunan Agricultural University project (25KJ010).

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest

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