Tarlac officials looking for ways to address tobacco tillers’ woes

TARLAC CITY — Local officials are looking for ways to assist more than 10,000 tobacco farmers in five northern towns after their produce has remained unsold for nearly four months now.

Gov. Jose Yap Sr. has directed provincial agriculture chief Bartolome Fajardo to conduct a "prompt and thorough study" on the economic impact of the unexpected "tobacco crisis."

He also ordered further representations with the Office of the President, the National Tobacco Administration (NTA) and the National Food Security Council for assistance to the affected farmers.

In the provincial board, ex-oficio board member Isaias Apostol filed a motion to place the affected municipalities under a "state of calamity."

The board’s majority floor leader, Carlito David, said Vice Gov. Marcelino Aganon Jr. and the rest of the board would go to the affected towns to assess for themselves the "gravity of the situation."

Once a state of calamity is declared in the five northern towns, David said Yap could immediately release funds to assist the tobacco farmers.

More than 3,500 hectares of farmlands in the towns of Anao, Moncada, Paniqui, Pura and San Manuel are planted to tobacco every month, starting in November shortly after the first palay cropping season.

Tarlac tobacco farmers normally sell their produce at P40 to P45 per kilo to cigarette manufacturers. At present, however, most of the planters now sell their harvest at P3 per kilo, but buyers here and in neighboring provinces could hardly accommodate them.

Tobacco planters in the neighboring provinces of Nueva Ecija and Pangasinan are also suffering the same fate.

With average earnings of P60,000 to P80,000 per hectare of tobacco harvest, the province now stands to lose P210 million to P280 million in revenues.

The province does not have a post-harvest storage facility for tobacco, forcing the affected planters to keep their unsold produce right inside their homes.

The crisis is also expected to affect the financial capability of tobacco farmers to have their farmlands planted to palay this coming rainy season.

According to the NTA office here, cigarette manufacturers shun the planted tobacco variety, called saplak or mestizo, because it affects the taste of cigarettes, and instead prefer genuine burley tobacco.

Among other measures, the NTA is urging the tobacco farmers to shift to genuine burley tobacco and modernize their production. In the long run, the planters are being convinced to shift to other crops.