P100M CROP PRODUCTION AID TO TOBACCO FARMERS BEING READIED

December 8, 2024 Provincial

BATAC, Ilocos Norte

Tobacco industry regulator National Tobacco Administration (NTA) is readying the handover of a P100 million crop production aid for qualified tobacco farmers nationwide for cropping year (CY) 2024 – 2025. At least 16,666 tobacco
farmers were identified as recipients of the cash assistance of P6,000.00 each tobacco farmer to be handed over to them on or before December 15, 2024, a recent conference presided over by Agriculture Undersecretary Deogracias Victor B. Savellano with NTA Administrator Belinda S. Sanchez, decided based on guidelines set and approved by
the NTA Governing Board.

“The giving of production assistance for our tobacco farmers is realized under the administration of President
Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. through Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel, Jr. and the NTA to enhance the
production of quality tobacco considering that the tobacco industry remains one of the strongest pillars of the
country’s economy contributing 1% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 6% of the overall annual tax revenue
collections,” Usec. Savellano pointed out. Of the 16,666 tobacco farmers crop production assistance beneficiaries, 9,055 are farmers logged under the NTA’s Tobacco Contract Growing System (TCGS) program, and 7,611 are non-TCGS farmers.

A TCGS farmer-recipient should have planted tobacco in one hectare of farmland and below, while the non- TCGS
farmer – recipients must have grown tobacco in a half-hectare farmland and below, both for cropping years 2023 – 2024 and 2024 – 2025. A beneficiary must also be NTA-registered tobacco farmers personally tilling a tobacco farm,
capable of providing adequate labor to attend to all activities in quality tobacco production, able to provide basic farm tools and equipment, such as plow, harrow, sprayer, work animal, irrigation pump, and curing bar/air curing shed, and should have adequate sources of good quality irrigation water and desirable for tobacco production.

Before aid’s actual distribution, the NTA branch offices will ensure that the recipients will meet all the requirements and surely plant tobacco this coming planting season. The number of recipients of the cash aid per NTA branch
office follows Abra – 992 tobacco farmers; Batac (Ilocos Norte) – 2,778 farmers; Cagayan – 700 farmers; Candon (Ilocos Sur) – 2,573 farmers; Isabela – 2,925; La Union – 1,667; Mindanao – 1,666; Pangasinan – 1,765; and Vigan (Ilocos Sur) – 1,600. The NTA started giving P6,000.00 free production assistance to qualified tobacco farmers in the cropping year 2023–2024. It is funded through the General Appropriation Act (GAA) that seeks to augment the production support being extended by Buying Firms, Local Government Units (LGUs), and Farmer Cooperatives to the tobacco farmers to enhance quality tobacco production that eventually helps them increase their income.

Artemio A. Dumlao/ABN