Tobacco Farmers in P’gasinan earn P1M per Hectare

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.

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.

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.

Although the same number of leaves he harvested before he used AMO, Cabatbat cited that the only difference is the thickness and length of the leaf after he used the miracle fertilizer. 

“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.The farmers started the yeoman’s job of sowing of seeds, implanting them, transplanting, nurturing, harvesting, curing, and marketing rhat span in six months (Photo credit Amianan Balita Ngayon)

Acuña cited the NTA findings that when the flowers of the tobacco sprouted from its node the farmers cut it so it could not hamper the growth of the leaves.

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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