Tobacco farmers in 3 provinces in the doldrums

ROSALES, Pangasinan — About 12 million kilos of unsold tobacco leaves, valued at P220 million, are left rotting in tobacco-producing towns in Pangasinan, Tarlac and Nueva Ecija.

Alarmed by the situation, the National Tobacco Administration (NTA) has formed a task force to look for ways to help the affected tobacco farmers.

Among other measures, the NTA hopes to convince the farmers to improve the quality of their produce by planting genuine burley tobacco and for the government to modernize the industry. Part of the long-term plan is to encourage farmers to shift to other crops.

The problem of unsold tobacco leaves cropped up last March with the Pangasinan towns of Villasis and Sto. Tomas being the hardest-hit.

The other affected towns are of Sta. Maria, Balungao, Rosales, Alcala, San Jacinto, Bayambang and Malasiqui, as well as Anao, Moncada and San Miguel in Tarlac, and a few in Nueva Ecija.

Tobacco production in the three provinces last year was estimated at 23.8 million kilos. Engineer Cesario Sambrana, manager of the local NTA branch, said only about five million kilos have been sold, and the rest have yet to be harvested or are exposed to the sun and rain in households.

Two companies have refused to buy the tobacco leaves. One cited the "deteriorated quality" of the produce, saying the saplak variety (or so-called "mestizo" since its quality is midway that of burley and native tobacco) has affected the taste of its cigarettes.

Unfortunately, 70 to 80 percent of tobacco planted in this province, Tarlac and Nueva Ecija is of the saplak variety. This explains why the NTA wants the farmers to shift to genuine burley tobacco.

The other company simply does not prefer the saplak variety.

The NTA said it has actually discouraged farmers from planting saplak, which reportedly affects the burning quality of tobacco. This particularly happens in the southern part of Pangasinan where the variety is planted in areas with high salinity, Sambrana said.

He said farmers in these areas did not plant saplak before but were prodded to do so because the variety was high-yielding and not sensitive to curing practices.