Tobacco Summit tackles good agri practices

More than 200 tobacco farmer-leaders from Northern Luzon trooped to Quezon City recently for the 2006 Tobacco Summit and went home vowing to adopt good agricultural practices (GAP) in their leaf farming activities.

Organized by the National Tobacco Administration (NTA) headed by Administrator Carlitos Encarnacion, the two-day summit tackled GAP and how its application would ernhance the quality of tobacco leaves and increase yields.

Encarnacion pointed out during the summit that sound farming practices end up promoting the safety of cigarette smokers.

"GAP reduces incidents of having non-tobacco related materials in processed tobacco and manufactured cigarettes," the NTA chief explained. Some of this unwanted materials are plastic materials and other rubbish that find their way into leaf shipments and are subsequently ground along with the leaves during processing.

Encarnacion said smokers’ safety is further enhanced with the adoption of GAP in tobacco farmlands as "it will reduce the accumulation of tar and other carcinogenic materials in tobacco leaves."

He urged the farmers to plant tobacco at the right time and use the right and proper agricultural technology.

He stressed that the application of GAP should cover all the stages of leaf farming – from seedbedding to transplanting, growing of the plant, harvesting, and curing of the leaf produce.

Speaking for the farmers, Andy Reyes and Saturnino Distor, vice president and secretary general of the Philippine Association of Tobacco-Based Cooperatives (PATCO), vowed to apply what they learned during the summit.

Among the topics and issues discussed in the summit conference were variety and integrity management; seedbed, crop, and integrated pest management; and non tobacco-related materials.

The summit was also graced by top executives of tobacco buying firms and cigaret manufacturing companies who included brothers Winston and Alex Uy of Universal Leaf Philippines, Inc.; Elena, Michael and James Tan of Continental Leaf ; Matthew and Marjorie Diong of Trans Manila Inc., and Edgar Uy of Fortune Tobacco.

Joining the NTA chief as speakers were other officials of the agency including deputy administrator Nestor Casela, Cristina Lopez, Perlita Baula, Robert Bonoan, Cesar Sambrana, Luzviminda Truong, Edilberto Valdez, Emerlita Bool and Rex Teoxon.