Alternative use of tobacco

According to the National strategy for environmental investments in the Republic of Macedonia 2007- 2013, the country has enough green energy, sunny days, hydropotential, geothermal watersuu8and biomass, i.e. potentials which are not sufficiently exploited, and it is bound to produce at least 20% renewable energy by 2020. The fact that tobacco production is a major source of income to many Macedonian families and direct incentive of economic development of certain regions in the country has encouraged the experts to find acceptable solution that will follow the EU guidelines on finding green energy as a renewable source and will also contribute to the anti-smoking campaign by alternative use of tobacco. Tobacco leaf is used for extraction of components for production of anti-inflammatory medications and drugs for treatment of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson's disease, diabetes etc. It can be also applied inantibactericide, antifungicide and antiinsecticidepreparations which proved their high efficiency in practice and are considered natural products for environmental protection. The amount of biomass per unit area is an important component in the production of biogas and organic fertilizer. Composition of tobacco plant and the ratio between its constituents (oil, cellulose, starch, sugar) is consideredan ideal combination for biogas production. If we defeat our prejudices that tobacco is used only for production of cigarettes and make deeper analyses of its real potentials, it will be realized that tobacco is the food of the future and agricultural crop which deserves more attention.