Tobacco and Makhorka, Institute of
Tobacco and Makhorka, Institute of
(full name, A. I. Mikoyan All-Union Research Institute of Tobacco and Makhorka of the Ministry of Agriculture of the USSR), a scientific center that coordinates work on techniques of raising tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) and makhorka, or Indian tobacco (Nicotiana rustica), in the USSR and on the manufacture of tobacco and makhorka products. It was organized in 1923 in Krasnodar from the Ekaterinodar Laboratory of Experimental Tobacco Growing, which had been established between 1913 and 1915; in 1934 it was merged with the All-Union Institute of the Makhorka Industry.
As of 1975 the institute had departments of breeding, seed growing, and seed science; general farming; postharvest soil cultivation; mechanization; chemical engineering; scientific and technical information; and incorporation of new and advanced techniques. There was a Moldavian branch in Kishinev. Also attached to the institute were the Armenian, Abkhazian, Kirghiz, Crimean, Lagodekhi, Pogar, and Driazga experiment stations; the Abinsk Experimental Field; and two bases in the Azerbaijan SSR and the Uzbek SSR.
The institute develops and improves techniques of cultivation, curing, and fermentation of tobacco and makhorka. It also devises methods for improving the properties of tobacco and makhorka products and develops new strains. In 1974, 33 varieties of tobacco and three of makhorka developed at the institute were regionalized.
The institute offers resident and correspondence graduate study. It has published Sbornik nauchno-issledovatel’skikh rabot since 1917.