Tobacco farmers’ consultation a good start

3 MIN READ

By KIMBERLIE NGABIT-QUITASOL
www.nordis.net

DOLORES, Abra — Tobacco farmers appreciated the holding of a consultation meeting with National Tobacco Administration (NTA) officials but said the responses to their long overdue demands were not very satisfactory.

Antonio Pugyao, chairperson of the Solidarity Peasants Against Exploitation (Stop Exploitation), appreciated the response of Dr. Robert Seares, the newly appointed NTA administrator to hold a consultation among farmers and NTA officials last March 27 at Dolores town in Abra to resolve the long standing demands of tobacco farmers. But he said they were not contented with the response of the NTA officials.

Tobacco farmer representatives from Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, La Union and Abra attended the consultation and reiterated their demands for a higher price for their produce, removal of the classification of tobacco leaves, review of contract terms of contract farming schemes and the inventory and audit of all NTA projects under the past administrator.

“We were hoping for more concrete answers to our demands but we were given vague statements and promises,” Pugyao, a tobacco farmer from Ilocos Norte said.

Pugyao said that on the issue of non-inclusion of the destruction of crops by natural phenomenon in the insurance under the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation, NTA only committed to include this in the contract-farming program of the agency and not covering contracts with private companies. He said this is a welcome commitment but it should cover all contracts and not just those under NTA.

Pugyao explained that tobacco leaves are very sensitive to water that even a normal rain would be damaging. But under the PCIC provisions, crop insurance only covers damage under a state of calamity declared by the local government unit.

Pugyao further said that under the contract growing scheme, damage to crops are solely shouldered by the farmers which buries them deeper into debt.

Pugyao also welcomed the commitment of the NTA to study tobacco pricing as he reiterated their demand for P128 per kilo without classification. He said the NTA was not keen at disregarding the classification of tobacco leaves.

He reiterated that the P128 per kilo demand is based on the projected daily cost of living and the farmers’ cost of production. He said that the daily cost of living and cost of production significantly increased in the past two years.

The NTA also agreed to allow representation of the farmers in the tripartite conference which will discuss other issues aside from pricing.

Seares in an interview after the consultation said he still needs to study the problems and alleged anomalies from the past administration. He said that the issues raised had been continuing problems which his administration hopes to resolve.

“We will need to study first the problems and issues and discuss with the members of the board (NTA) and find solutions,” Seares said.

Seares said the NTA has to really ensure that every peso from its budget is spent wisely to benefit tobacco farmers.

Seares raised the lack of trading centers to cater to Abra tobacco producers. He said that Abra tobacco farmers have been neglected for a very long period so that now many of them opted to venture into other sources of livelihood. He said that Villavisiosa, Pilar and San Isidro towns of Abra used to be among the top quality producers of tobacco but became low producing due to the lack of support.

“We hope that under our term we will be able to revive the tobacco industry in these towns,” Seares said. # nordis.net