NTA now producing pulpboards from tobacco stalks

The road that would lead to the production of paper from tobacco may be long and winding, but National Tobacco Administration (NTA) researchers were reported to have made much progress on the trailblazing enterprise.

NTA Administrator Carlitos Encarnacion said the tobacco agency has reached the stage of making pulpboards out of its virgin pulp production from tobacco stalks. The NTA has also subsequently made experimental base paper from the pulpboard, it was learned.

From a current pulp production of l0 tons a day, the agency has set a daily production target of 50 tons by 2010.

The Department of Agriculture(DA)-NTA pulp-to-paper project is aimed to boost President Arroyo’s job creation agenda and DA’s goal of tapping at least two million hectares of new land for agribusiness by 2010 that is geared to open up two million jobs according to the NTA chief.

He said the project will be both dollar earning and dollar saving.

It was learned that total hectarage for the growing of ordinary tobacco for pulp production will reach 19,200 ha. five years from now. The area will be distributed from Pangasinan to the Ilocos provinces.

Tobacco pulp is generated from the plant’s stalks. Dr. Robert Bonoan, farm development department chief of NTA, said 22,220 kilos of tobacco stalk can produce l0,000 kilos of pulp.

Bonoan said a hectare yields 1,400 kilos of clean stalks.

NTA has been working with Forest Products Research and Development Institute (FPRDI) headed by Director Florence Soriano. Apart from providing technical assistance and research facilities, FPRDI’s lap-forming machine is allegedly being utilized in developing the pulpboards.

Encarnacion cited the prospects of DA-NTA’s pulp-making activity during his meeting with upland farmers in Itogon Benguet last week.

The erstwhile vegetable farmers have undergone a five-month training on tobacco farming through the sponsorship of Philip Morris Philippines Manufacturing Inc. (PMPMI) and Trans Manila Inc.

PMPMI managing director Chris Nelson and Trans Manila president Matthew Diong distributed training certificates to the farmers.

The NTA chief also sees bright prospects for tobacco dust as an organic pesticide for fishponds. He cited NTA’s experimental activity in Paombong (Bulacan) fishponds where the use of tobacco dust has reduced the mortality rate of fingerlings from 20 percent to five percent.

He said that in Region 3, the requirement is 50 million kilos of tobacco dust per cycle. "That would be 110 million kilos for two cycles," he said.

Tobacco dust is sourced from the leaves of poor tobacco and from leaf shreddings that are left behind during trading.