Philippines: Ilocos Tobacco Farmers Gains Pre-harvest Income with NTA AgriPinoy

Source from:  Philippine Information Agency  01/14/2014

Tobacco farmers in Ilocos Sur this cropping season are now earning even before the harvest of their produce, NTA said in a statement.

Farmer Rodrigo Cabotage of Barangay Cadacad, Narvacan, Ilocos Sur has sold all of his five hogs weighing an average of 108 kilograms per head, earning him a net income of P20,412, or an average P4,082.4 per hog. He only spent more than three months to fatten the hogs while tending to his tobacco farm.

Cabotage is one of the 114 farmer recipients of the first batch of the hog fattening component of AgriPinoy Tobacco Farmers Food Processing Plant and Trading Center of the National Tobacco Administration (NTA). As of third week of December, farmer recipients have just sold more than 238,802.3 kilograms or 2,551 of fattened hogs worth P25.236-million.

The NTA through its multi-million food processing facility buys the fattened hog at prevailing market price from the tobacco farmers, and sells them as processed meat (tocino, tapa, barbecue, bagnet, longganisa and ham) to major trading outlets, food terminals, government offices and supermarkets.

The facility, opened last October last year, is a component of NTA's Integrated Farming and Other Income Generating Activities Project (IFOIGAP), an intervention program that seeks to provide tobacco farmers with additional sources of income outside their regular trade.

NTA provides farmers with production assistance which include the cost of piglet, feeds, medicine and other technical services.

The farmers were mostly from Narvacan, where the food processing facility is situated. The rest of the farmers came from Candon City, Santiago, Burgos and Sta. Maria in Ilocos Sur, and Pidigan and San Quintin in Abra.

Cabotage's P4,082.40 per hog exceeded the agency's projection of net income for each hog. According to Minerva Mizal, NTA AgriPinoy operations manager, the agency is expecting the highest return of production at around P1,776. The agency's buying price for live hog is the prevailing price in the market.

Cabotage said the money he earned from the agency's hog fattening project is a big boost to his income even outside the cropping season. He had an average net income P40,000 for his half-hectare farm every cropping season.

Jessie Cabael, also of Barangay Cadacad, has earned P43,448.50 for his 10 hogs, or an average of P4,344.85 per hog. Saturnino Saldua of Barangay Banglayan has a higher total income for his 20 hogs, which is P59,285.50 or an average of P2964.28 per hog.

Last December, Cabotage, Cabael and Saldua joined some 88 farmer recipients from the first batch who attended the reorientation on hog fattening at its facility in Barangay Nanguneg in Narvacan town. 

According to Alex Borje, project manager of NTA AgriPinoy, the agency has started distributing piglets to the qualified farmers for the second cycle of the program as early as last month. Farmer recipients must be legitimate tobacco farmers to avail of the NTA's hog fattening program.

NTA Administrator Edgardo Zaragoza said that almost all of the farmer recipients had gained an extra income on the initial cycle. The farmers had realized the benefit of the hog fattening component of the project, so all of them now wanted to be part of the second cycle, he added.

He assured the farmer recipients of a ready market and a fair price for their hogs.

Most of the Virginia tobacco farmers in Ilocos Region are expected to start harvesting their tobacco farm on the last week of January.

With an assured price of up to P78 (highest rate for AA grade of Virginia) for his tobacco and an extra income from the hog fattening, Cabotage has all reasons to be hopeful of a good cropping season for his family. Enditem