Tobacco farmers in Ilocos gets production assistance

November 6, 2021 Provincial

“Ilocos Region’s tobacco production up in 3Q.”
Some Php 4.44 million worth of production assistance and farm inputs were distributed to tobacco farmers in Ilocos. Agriculture Secretary
William Dar and Acting National Tobacco Administration (NTA) Deputy Administrator for Operations Engr. Cesario G. Sambrana on Nov. 4 led in the activity during the RCEF-RFF launching in Ilocos Sur Polytechnic State College (ISPSC) in Sta. Maria, Ilocos Sur.
Based on NTA Facebook page, the seedling growers are part of the 62 farmers of the second district of Ilocos Sur who are cooperators of the
Improved Tobacco Seedling Production (ITSP) Project of the National Tobacco Administration.
Under the ITSP, now on its third year of implementation, the agency provides P20 million worth of production assistance to 250 seedlings growers in the country to produce sufficient tobacco seedlings of good, uniform, strong and healthy quality.
The tobacco growers also received from NTA Candon inputs for the NTA Gulayan at Manukan sa Barangay and Vegetables Seed Distribution. According to Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), tobacco dried leaves production from April to June 2021 posted at 36.83 thousand metric tons or a decrease of -2.1 percent, from  37.6 2 thousand metric tons output in the same period of 2020.
Ilocos Region produced the highest tobacco production this quarter with 24.93 thousand metric tons (MT) or 67.7 percent of share to the total tobacco production.
The PSA further reported, other tobacco (Burley) was the most produced variety, contributed 42.4 percent to the total produce during the period, flowed by Virginia tobacco with 41.4 percent share on the total production.
In 2020, the value of tobacco produced in the Philippines amounted to around 4.8 billion Philippine pesos. The production value of tobacco in the country had been increasing since 2017.
Primo Agatep/ABN