PHL to fund P165-M business project for tobacco farmers

The National Tobacco Administration (NTA) is spending P165 million for a business project that will benefit an initial 7,700 tobacco farmers through several livelihood programs. Currently under construction in Barangay Nanguneg, Narvacan, Ilocos Sur, the AgriPinoy Tobacco Farmers Food Processing and Trading Center (NTA AgriPinoy) will engage in contract growing services for hog and poultry. The trading center will buy and process meat into best-selling products like bagnet, Vigan longaniza, tapa, bacon, barbecue, and similar products for sale in food terminals, groceries, markets, hospitals and offices in Region I, the Cordillera Administration Region and Metro Manila. With assistance from the Agribusiness Marketing Assistance Service (AMAS) of the Agriculture Department, Tobacco Agency Administrator chief Edgardo D. Zaragoza said the project will help improve the economic and living conditions of tobacco growing communities. “It shall also provide an alternative marketing system and business model to increase tobacco farmers’ purchasing and bargaining power, and develop farmers’ capabilities to manage dynamic rural enterprises,” he said. Data from the Tobacco Agency showed that on the first year of operations, farmers who are members of a cooperative stand to earn over P8 million in annual aggregate income per year on top of income from tobacco production. Based on the feasibility study, farmers’ income is projected to increase to P10. 4 million in the second year, P13.6 million in the third year, P17.8 million in the fourth year, and P23.3 million in the fifth year of operation. The project will cover the whole of Ilocos Region in the immediate period, starting with Ilocos Sur as its priority coverage, Ilocos Norte, La Union, Pangasinan, and Abra in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR). In the future, the project’s coverage will expand to other major tobacco growing provinces in the Cagayan Valley. The beneficiaries will be involved in the production of raw materials for hog and poultry through a contract growing system where the agency will provide tobacco farmers with production NTA Agency branch offices in Region I and CAR will deliver the transfer of technology of hog fattening, and broiler growing coupled by a close in-process of technical assistance, monitoring, and supervision. “Considering that the NTA AgriPinoy product lines cater to basic needs, and that food accounts for 46.91 percent of the personal consumption expenditures of average Filipino families, the NTA AgriPinoy will have a sure pre-arranged market, not only locally, but in the future, on a global scale,” Zaragoza said. The NTA AgriPinoy project will sustain the quantity, quality and competitiveness of price of all its product lines, and results of its operations shall flow back to the NTA to replenish its capital investment, he added. The program involves “total farmer development” and “total market development”, which includes production of quality tobacco and other components – rice, corn, fruits, livestock and poultry. — BM/VS, GMA News