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Friday, April 04, 2008
DA urged to use tobacco lands for rice plantation
MANILA -- Advocates of anti-tobacco on Thursday asked the Department of Agriculture (DA) to utilize lands in the Ilocos region planted with tobacco to instead be planted with corps in particular rice, following the reported shortage.
"In the light of the rice crisis, whether real or artificial, we urge our agriculture officials to list as priority task the pouring of infrastructure to the Ilocos region to encourage Ilocano farmers to plant rice instead of tobacco," said Dr. Maricar Limpin, executive director of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance-Philippines (FCAP).
Limpin also noted that Congress should pass laws that promote rice farming instead of promoting Virginia tobacco farming, which is very opposed to the principles of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) to which the Philippines is party to, and embodied in Republic Act (RA) 9211 or the Tobacco Regulation Act.
"It is ironic that in the midst of the rice crisis, the tobacco farmers are celebrating tobacco harvests. Tobacco is one product that has no real value and can only cause harm. On the contrary, rice is our staple food and all Filipinos will suffer if we don't have enough of this," added Limpin.
The Philippines as one of the parties to FCTC of the World Health Organization (WHO) is constrained to promote economically viable alternatives for tobacco workers, including farmers.
"Certainly rice farming should be one of them," Limpin said.
Records of the Bureau of Agriculture Statistics (BAS) showed that the Ilocos region posted 1,642,3301 metric tons (MTs) of palay (unhusked rice), contributing almost 10 percent of the 16,240,194 MTs of total palay production in 2007.
"This share of the country's total palay production can be significantly increased if Ilocos farmers are given support such as irrigation so that they can plant rice twice a year. The farmers alternately plant tobacco during dry season and rice during the wet season," Limpin pointed out, adding that tobacco farming should be scrapped altogether.
Limpin also said with the right government support, "our Ilocos farmers can plant rice, instead of tobacco, which has very little contribution to the country's coffers."
The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said that in the past nine years (1995-2003), the share of tobacco in the country's total exports remained less than one percent.
Among the major tobacco-producing provinces in the Ilocos region are Ilocos Sur, Pangasinan, and La Union with shares to the total production of 27 percent, 21 percent and 20 percent, respectively.
Other top producing provinces are Isabela with 13 percent share and Ilocos Norte with six percent share. The rest of the producing provinces accounted for 13 percent.
Of the top producing provinces, Pangasinan had the highest production growth rate at 20.60 percent. Ilocos Norte posted a negative growth at 26.8 percent.
The top five tobacco producing provinces come from these regions and they accounted for a combined share of 87 percent of total production and 78 percent of tobacco farmers, said Limpin. (Sunnex) |
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