Tobacco farmers get 1st payment for hog raising activities

SANTA, Ilocos Sur — The first batch of tobacco farmers who ventured into hog production as an extra job to supply the requirements of a food processing plant received their first cash payments here recently. 

Deputy admnistrator Nestor Casela of the National Tobacco Administration (NTA) who handed the individual payments to the farmers told newsmen that the farmers realized profits ranging from P1,500 to P2,000 per grown hog. 

The first batch of swine raisers who turned in their production totalling 28 hogs to the PGMA- Multiline Food Processing Plant here last Thursday came from barangay Malammin in San Juan town and San Pablo in Narvacan.

NTA is the new operator of the plant located in Mabilbila Sur, this town.

Ilocos Sur Governor Luis "Chavit" Singson, in a memorandum of agreement, had earlier turned over the management and operation of the plant to the NTA. Adminisrator Carlitos Encarnacion of the tobacco agency signed for NTA.

More batches of hogs for Multiline are forthcoming, Encarnacion said, adding he expects weekly deliveries until April 23.

He said NTA has contracted Ilocos tobacco farmers for the PGMA-Multiline project to boost their income and in support of Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap’s initiatives to make the farmers earn more this year.

The leaf farmers are also being harnessed for the production of chicken, vegetables, corn, mangoes, and bananas for the food processing plant’s operations, Encarnacion said.

In an interview, farmer Wilson Villacillo who earned P2,900 from his hog production expressed satisfaction for the additional income. He said that NTA provided the piglets that he raised, as well as feeds, and veterinary assistance.