Grateful to Miracle
Plant Growth Enhancer
By Mortz C. Ortigoza
MALASIQUI – Because of
the confluence of commercial and chemical factors like the use of plant growth enhancer, tobacco farmers here have experienced a booming harvest
early this year because of the roughly a million of pesos’ net profit per
hectare.
Bernardo Cabatbat, a 72
years old farmer, was surprised that after he used AMO Plant Growth Enhancer (APGE)
in the planting season in September last year to its harvest in March this year
where he earned about a million pesos in his one hectare of farm land.
“Maganda noong dumating ang AMO matagal na ako sa
AMO,” he stressed in Filipino
the effect of the sea weed based non toxic’s miracle fertilizer.
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BIG TIME - Proud tobacco
farmers at Barangay Gatang in Malasiqui, Pangasinan show their green bags that
carry the AMO “miracle” plant growth enhancer after a pep talk with enhancer’s
officials. Frantic hardware and lumberyard owners in the 73 villages’ town have
to deal with the frenzied farmers ordering construction materials for their
houses and other needs because they hit big time in the recent harvest season.
He said the cost of
production from planting to harvesting tobacco was seventy thousand pesos.
“Katulad ngayon isang
ektarya kulang-kulang one million pesos ang kinita namin dito”.
Unlike rice and corn, the
buying system of tobacco is not by kilo but by pardo.
Pardo means 20 sets of
tobacco leaves. One set is six cured leaves strung through its petiole by a
bamboo stick where they are hanged in curing barns.
“Even the hardware and lumber yard owners were
amazed by the frantic demand of the farmers in Barangay Gatang for construction
materials of their houses. They wonder why most of these customers came from
the same barangay,” Cabatbat told this
newspaper.
He said the lucrative
harvest of native tobacco ensued because of the spike of the demand of its
price as another factor for a bumper harvest.
“The other one was the quality increased
through the thickness and length of the leaf because of the phenomenal AMO”.
Crisanto Dauz, 59, said that the native
tobacco being planted in the seven villages of this huge town in central
Pangasinan is a premium product compared to the Burley brand that is used for
commercial cigarettes in the country and abroad.
The main market of the
tobacco here are residents of the Cordillera and Muslim Region in Mindanao who
used them as nganga and maskada or for chewing of areca nut,
lime, and tobacco wrapped in a betel leaf.
“The Muslims even come here and buy by bulks for
their customers in Mindanao”.
He said the buying price
of pardo this year is P12,500, it was P8,500 last year, and P7,500 two years
ago.
According to Dauz the
leaves or priming of the tobacco are classified by their corresponding
qualities and prices.
“In one class alone I sold more than 30
pardos of a lesser quality at ten thousand pesos per pardo. If you multiplied
the 30 by ten thousand pesos per pardo that would be three hundred thousand
pesos already,” he cited to this writer.
Notwithstanding, he said,
the other leaves that varies their qualities from first class called puro that
is twenty to twenty-two thousand pesos per pardo to the other lesser classes
pasanga, batik, and liso.
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| Native tobacco buyers are busy arranging their cured products so buyers as far as the Cordillera and Muslim Mindanao could easily select the items they want to buy. Native tobacco is used as ingredient for nganga and maskada or chewing areca nut, lime that are wrapped in a betel leaf. |
“Noong kumukuha kami ng pardo parehas din. Sa puno
bilang na bilang ang puno sa dahon. Kaya lang depende sa haba at kapal ng
tabako. Kaya mahal dahil makapal at malapad. Bilang na bilang ang dahon na
tinitira namin,” he explained.
According to APGE
president Eric Acuña usage of AMO means no more expenses on pesticide
and fungicide.
“You don’t need to use pesticide and fungicide,” he
disclosed to this writer the savings a peasant could have.
Acuña,
a former Pangasinan congressman, contention was corroborated by the National
Tobacco Administration’s after his product hurdled the bio efficacy evaluation
trial.
“Entitled “Efficacy Test of AMO Plant Growth
Enhancer on Yield and Quality of Burley and Improved Flavor Tobacco conducted
by the NTA under its Protocol Research and Development Program Crop Year 2017
-2018,” declared by the thesis
liked findings’ Certificate and Product Efficacy and Suitability of the NTA.
It was signed by National
Tobacco Administration’s Administrator Robert L. Seares, M.D.
Because of its being
labor intensive, only seven barangays in Malasiqui and a few towns in Pangasinan
province plant tobacco.
He said the native
tobacco plants here that were sprayed with AMO stunted the emergence of its
flowers thus healthy leaves grow from the stem.
Cabatbat said after its
reaches 16 to 18 leaves he cut the top stem of the plant.
Acuna cited that in the
NTA efficacy test it found that three to four leaves were added because of the
mixture of AMO and other chemicals.
Because of its being
labor intensive, only seven barangays here and a few towns in Pangasinan
province plant tobacco.
The farmers started the
yeoman’s job of sowing of seeds, implanting them, transplanting, nurturing,
harvesting, curing, and marketing.
“Matrabaho. Punla ka
boto ng September, araw araw linisan ang bukid ng damo. Tanim ng November bubunot ka ng punla. Araro
ka gamit ang kalabaw sa gitna ng tabakuhan. Pag walang ulan mag patubig gamit
ang pump apat na beses patubigan. February malaki na tangal maliit na dahon sa
itaas para hindi na tutubo. Ang sanga sa itaas putulin na sa Enero,“ Lelia
Jordan, 67, explained.
Rosalie Acuña, the wife of the former
solon, said that it needs only five sachets of AMO to apply in a hectare.
A farmer should use sprayer
to bring the liquid product to the plants.
One sachet is seven
hundred pesos multiplied by five equals P3,500, she cited.
The farmers here use AMO
with fertilizers like Swire, Yara, and others to buttress the roots
of the plant.
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