Cigarette Firm's Program Boosts Earnings of Upland Farmers

Source from:  Jun. 13, 2006 Christine A. Gaylican Inquirer TUBA, BENGUET 06/15/2006

THE SEARCH FOR full-flavored tobacco leaves with lower nicotine content has brought a team from cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris Philippines Manufacturing Inc. to the hinterlands of this province. Tobacco grown in the lowlands suffers from poor quality because of higher soil salinity and "unacceptable farm management practices," according to Philip Morris's contracted domestic leaf buyer Trans-Manila Inc. "Farmers in Ilocos and Pangasinan were rampantly using unacceptable farm management practices such as the improper use of inorganic fertilizers, particularly chlorine-based commercial fertilizer varieties," explains Trans-Manila Inc.'s vice president Matthew Diong in an interview. This has brought down the quality of Philippine tobacco to mere "fillers" for cigarettes locally manufactured by Philip Morris. "This was heartbreaking for tobacco farmers in the lower plains because tobacco has been grown in the Philippines since the Spanish colonial period in the 18th century," Diong notes. To revive the local tobacco industry, Trans-Manila and Philip Morris started a project meant to upgrade the "agronomic skills" of upland vegetable farmers in planting tobacco. Upland farming Combined efforts of international agronomists from Philip Morris, Trans-Manila and local agriculturists from the National Tobacco Administration (NTA) and the Benguet provincial agriculture office gave birth to the idea of growing tobacco in upland areas. Diong said their technical team has devised a scheme for growing tobacco in the mountains, particularly in Benguet, after extensive research to determine suitable crop management practices on the hilly terrain. Results of soil tests and other research on growing tobacco in the highlands were encouraging enough to justify the establishment of a tobacco training center in the area. "We found a way to resuscitate the ailing local tobacco production sector," Diong recalls. "The results show that we could grow the kind of high-quality export tobacco leaf that Brazil produces also in their upland areas." "The weather here, the soil conditions, the temperature are suitable for tobacco farming," he added. "The next step for us was to convince the vegetable farmers to grow tobacco, which was not too difficult under the circumstances." The first beneficiaries of the training school were Ibaloi farmers who knew nothing about tobacco farming. Today many of them are also teaching other farmers the proper way of growing upland tobacco. "Planting tobacco is not easy," says Manolo Mat-an, a local beneficiary of the program. "It's more challenging compared to planting crops like Baguio beans and carrots, but we are realizing good incomes and we intend to continue planting it and use it also as a hedge to keep prices of vegetables profitable for us." Mat-an notes that the high quality tobacco leaves they harvest command a price of P50 to P70 per kilo, compared to the low-grade tobacco that they used to sell for P20 to P30 per kilo. This encouraged other farmers to join the training program. Orienting farmers Last month, another set of 50 farmers from nearby Trinidad and various villages around the province completed six months of training on tobacco growing, making them the third group of vegetable growers to graduate from the country's first tobacco training center. During the training, farmers are oriented about the advantages of growing better varieties of full-flavored tobacco, which have lower nicotine content and higher sugar content, making them more aromatic. "The varieties planted upland are far superior to the filler-tobacco varieties grown in the lowlands and can fetch premium prices," notes Diong. At the same time, agronomists emphasize to farmers the importance of producing quality tobacco using more environment-friendly farm practices. They are taught the latest techniques in preparing seed beds, transplanting the seedlings as well as curing and classifying leaves. They are also taught how to construct a cost-effective curing barn. One of the critical components of the training program is the Tobacco Identity Preservation Program (TIPP), which essentially advocates the planting only of certified tobacco seeds and absolutely discourages the use of all genetically modified tobacco seeds, if these are available. Under the TIPP, farmers are taught not to repeat the bad practices of lowland farms, which led to the deterioration of tobacco quality. After the first year of the project, about 40 tons of tobacco were harvested from the pilot farms. This doubled to 80 tons in 2005. This year, production is projected to be even higher, with more farmers going into tobacco farming as a profitable alternative crop. "Without the support of the government, the private sector, and the farmers themselves, this training wouldn't become a success," said Philip Morris managing director Chris Nelson during the program's graduation rites. Continuing partnership Adding that the tobacco company has committed to buy all of the farmer's produce that meet its quality standards, Nelson said, "It is this partnership which will allow the production of high quality tobacco in the mountains." He was also very impressed with the quality of upland tobacco grown here and promised farmers Philip Morris will be a ready market for their products if they continue to commit to good agricultural practices. "We are not telling farmers that tobacco will take over vegetable farming as their main source of income, but we are telling them that they could plant a high-value commercial alternative crop that would allow them to raise their incomes and have a steady livelihood throughout the year," Nelson said. According to Diong, this continuing partnership among government authorities, the private sector and the farmers will ensure that the local tobacco industry will survive the challenges facing it. "[The Philippine tobacco industry] is not a dying industry as widely perceived but it is undergoing a very positive transformation," he notes. "Farmers are now seeing how important quality is." Enditem