Pulp production from tobacco stalks gets a headstart

The "diligent" and "determined" work by National Tobacco Administration (NTA) researchers on discovering other uses of tobacco has paid off with pulp production from tobacco stalks now getting a headstart.

This was learned from NTA Administrator Carlitos Encarnacion who said that the agency is now in the process of refining the technology for producing the pulp from tobacco stalks in collaboration with the Forest Products Research and Development Institute (FPRDI) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) headed by Director Florence Soriano and the Albay Agro Industrial Development Corporation (ALINDECO).

Thru the assistance of FPRDI, the NTA was able to undertake last month a pilot scale production of the pulp at ALINDECO in Malinao, Albay, under the guidance of Felix Imperial, vice president for operations.

The NTA chief said that further processing to determine the quality of the pulp that was produced is now being done with the technical assistance of the Pulp and Paper Research and Training Center at FPRDI in UP Los Baños.

The NTA is confident that concrete results will be attained by June. "If the project succeeds, new livelihood and job opportunities will be created and it will be NTA’s humble contribution for Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s job creation agenda, that is being pursued by Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap," Encarnacion said.

It will also boost the income of tobacco farmers, he added.

The production of pulp from tobacco will reportedly be a dollar saving and earning enterprise and will protect the environment as it would spare trees from being wantonly availed of as the traditional source of pulp for paper products.

Aside from tobacco pulp, NTA is also doing research and development studies on tobacco leaves, as biopesticide for fishponds, mango and vegetables.

It is a joint project of he NTA with the Philippine Council of Aquatic and Marine Research and Development (PCAMRD), Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) and Rep. Salacnib Baterina of the 1st District of Ilocos Sur.

The use of tobacco dust as pesticide is now going on in milkfish raising areas in Paombong, Bulacan, it was learned.

It was reported that previous findings and actual applications by fishpond owners proved that tobacco dust, a purely biological product, can effectively kill predatory pests in fishponds and rice fields, like mollusks or snails.

Also, upon decomposition, tobacco dusts allegedly transpose as organic fertilizer and become source of nutrients for the growth of an algae food (Lab-lab) for fishes.