Tobacco farmers offer to plant palay

NARVACAN, Ilocos Sur – The country’s tobacco farmers are raring to join the government efforts to solve the rice crisis.

Their plan is to plant palay in 3,335 hectares of tobacco lands in the northern provinces.

In a letter to Administrator Carlitos Encarnacion of the National Tobacco Administration (NTA), Carlos Cachola, president of the Philippine Association of Tobacco-Based Cooperatives (PATCO), offered to participate in the “accelerated rice production effort” of the Department of Agriculture.

Cachola said the 3,335 hectares of tobacco lands targeted for palay production would generate 16,675 metric tons of the staple.

The effort will cover five tobacco-growing provinces ‑ Pangasinan, La Union, Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte, and Abra ‑ and will involve 6,670 tobacco farmers.

The group asked to be provided with production assistance, including a subsidy of one cavan of certified palay seeds per hectare.  

Encarnacion endorsed the PATCO letter to Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap.

It will not be the first time that tobacco farmers would plant rice. Many of them have been raising the staple once a year, ahead of the tobacco-cropping season. 

Cachola said palay-producing tobacco farmers have posted an average yield of 5.12 tons per hectare in the last nine years.

Their output has reportedly beaten the national average yield of 2.93 tons per hectare for palay planted in rain-fed areas.