Philippines' Tobacco Growers Diversify

Source from:  Monday, November 20, 2006 tobaccoreporter.com 11/22/2006

The Philippines' National Tobacco Administration (NTA) has boosted its chicken raising project as it anticipates a shortage during Christmas, according to a report in The Philippine Star. NTA administrator, Carlitos Encarnacion, said his agency had entered recently into a memorandum of agreement with tobacco farmers' co-operatives in Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte, whose members would go into extensive chicken production. The project is part of NTA's mandate after the agency took on the task of manager-operator of the Multine Food Processing Plant, which is owned by the Ilocos Sur provincial government. Encarnacion said the tie-up with Multine would greatly boost the income of tobacco farmers. Enditem