Alternative fuels in tobacco curing...

If contracted farmers have to use wood, our policy requires they use it as efficiently as possible, through optimal design of curing furnaces and barns, and by giving preference to alternative fuels where practicable.

Not all types of tobacco require artificial heat for curing. Where energy is required, British American Tobacco encourages the use of alternative energy and construction of fuel-efficient curing barns.

In a number of our tobacco leaf growing programs we cure tobacco with alternative fuels to wood. The alternative fuels in use include gas, straw, sawdust, coal, kerosene, rubber tree waste, and coconut, coffee and rice paddy husks.

The alternative fuel in Sri Lanka , introduced to farmers by our subsidiary Ceylon Tobacco Company, is rice paddy husks.

Ceylon Tobacco began seeking an alternative in the early 1980s. Paddy husk, the residue after rice has been milled, was piling up and rotting in rice-growing areas, and the company recognized its potential. After many trials, Ceylon Tobacco came up with a special paddy husk furnace, made of low-cost local clay and brick. As well as curing tobacco, it can also be used to dry other crops such as chilies, pepper, cloves or cocoa.

The initiative has saved farmers approximately 38 per cent of their original wood fuel costs, since most people can obtain paddy husk free. Farmers need only pay transport costs, and Ceylon Tobacco is helping farmers in non-rice-growing areas to source transported husks. The company has carried out training, and all contracted curing barns in Sri Lanka are now successfully converted to paddy husk fuel. Meanwhile, Ceylon Tobacco is also continuing with its tree planting program.

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