Nueva Vizcaya farmers shift from corn to tobacco

Source from:  www.manilatimes.net, Saturday, June 04, 2005 06/06/2005

Although farm lands in Barangay Bagahabag are situated beside the Magat River, irrigation remains a serious problem to farmers who could not start planting rice because of the absence of water, The worsening irrigation problem has led farmers in the village, who used to plant corn, to shift to tobacco through the help of tobacco company Lancaster Philippines Inc. (LPI). Bernard Paraiso, a farmer in the said barangay, said LPI technicians introduced him to Burley tobacco planting six months ago. He is savoring the fruits of his labor now, like many other farmers in the village. Paraiso said LPI loaned him P19,000 worth of Burley seedlings which he planted in December on his 1,100-square-meter farm which used to be planted to corn. After five months, Paraiso said he earned a profit of P78,000. He said “the price of one kilogram of Burley is P72, multiplied by the 4,000 kilos that I harvested from the 1,100 square meters. That gave me a gross sale of P288,000.” Paraiso said he spent P210,000, including P40,000 for his stocking house and drying equipment. “But the P40,000 is only a one-time expense which means that my expenses will only be P170,000 and that will give me a net of more than P100,000 in the next planting season.” His profits from his first harvest were substantially more than what he earned from planting corn. Three other new tobacco farmers with larger farm areas boasted of almost the same range of net income, enticing other corn farmers to register with LPI so they could go through the same process in the next season. “There is no problem with the market because LPI buys the harvest and hauls the burley,” Paraiso said.