Tobacco Fields of Anyar, Java 印尼爪哇 AnYar 煙草園

Tobacco was introduced into Indonesia by the Dutch colonists. The climatic condition and fertile soil were perfect for tobacco cultivation, especially in East Java. Today, it is a major commodity in the Indonesian economy and ranked Indonesia as the seventh largest tobacco producer in the world. 

Like other agricultural crops, tobacco is grown from seeds scattered onto the soil. Tobacco is planted only once a year - April or May and harvested in July to September. After that, it will be replaced by other cash crops like rice and corn.

One of the peaceful village in Kota Anyar

We made a visit to the tobacco fields in Kota Anyar - a village town, about 2km from Paiton where tobacco is planted and harvested using traditional methods for generations. 

In the middle of lush green tobacco fields

Bordered by mist capped mountains, fringed by green valleys 

It takes about 80-90 days before a fully grown tobacco plant is ready for harvest. They are planted a few weeks apart so harvesting is spread out throughout several months. 

Tobacco Buds are usually removed (known as topping) before they can flower; in order to increase leaf production and quality. After topping, new shoots will appear rapidly. 

Tobacco flower- Pretty Pinkish Sepal is cylindrical bell shaped with salver-shaped petals.

Tobacco flowers in full bloom, trumpeting towards the sky. After the flowers drop off, seed pods turned brown and dry containing thousands of tiny seeds. 

Freshly cut plants of the day. Tobacco is harvested in two ways - cutting off the stalk at the ground with a curved tobacco knife is the oldest method.

Pulling individual leaves is another method known as 'cropping'. A fully grown plant is about 7 ft tall and has about 18-22 leaves. Leaves ripen progressively from the bottom of the stalk upwards, thus they are picked at different times  at several weeks (about six times) interval. Two or four leaves are picked at a time upon perfect maturity and 6 leaves at the final pick before the whole plant is cut down. 

Bundles of tobacco leaves (10-12 leaves per bundle) are left on the fence to be sun-cured. Sun cured tobacco is low in sugar and nicotine. 

Shredded tobacco drying on woven bamboo trays in the yards of nearly every house.

Colour changes from rich green to yellow and then finally to brown. Thin sugar syrup is sprayed onto the tobacco to achieve a brownish colour and increase their weight.

After curing, farmers sell their tobacco to a buying agency or cigarette manufacturers for processing and packaged as cigarettes or cigars and other.