The National Tobacco Administration (NTA) is preparing for the distribution of the P100 million crop production grant allocated by the national government for qualified tobacco farmers nationwide for cropping year 2024 to 2025.
The agency said in a statement yesterday the NTA governing board, presided over by Agriculture undersecretary Deogracias Victor Savellano and NTA administrator Belinda Sanchez, identified 16,666 tobacco farmers as recipients of free cash assistance amounting to P6,000 each to be distributed on or before December 15, 2024.
The recipients were identified by the NTA branch offices based on the guidelines set and approved by the NTA governing board.
Of the total recipients of the assistance, 9,055 are farmers listed under the NTA’s Tobacco Contract Growing System (TCGS) program and 7,611 are non-TCGS farmers.
TCGS farmer-recipients should have planted tobacco in one hectare of farmland and below, while non-TCGS farmer-recipients must have grown tobacco in a half-hectare farmland and below, both for cropping years 2023-2024 and 2024-2025.
Recipients of the cash aid are further broken down to 992 from Abra; 2,778 from Batac, Ilocos Norte; 700 from Cagayan; 2,573 from Candon, Ilocos Sur; 2,925 from Isabela; 1,667 from La Union; 1,666 from Mindanao; 1,765 from Pangasinan; and 1,600 from Vigan, Ilocos Sur.
Tobacco cropping season in the Philippines starts every September and runs till June of the following year.
“The giving of production assistance for our tobacco farmers is realized under the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. through Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel, Jr. and the NTA to enhance the production of quality tobacco considering that the tobacco industry remains one of the strongest pillars of the country’s economy contributing 1 percent of the Gross Domestic Product and 6 percent of the overall annual tax revenue collections,” Savellano said.
According to the NTA, beneficiaries must also be registered tobacco farmers personally tilling a tobacco farm, capable of providing adequate labor to attend to all activities in quality tobacco production, able to provide basic farm tools and equipment and should have adequate sources of good quality irrigation water desirable for tobacco production.
Before the grant’s actual distribution, the NTA branch offices will ensure that the recipients will meet all the requirements and surely plant tobacco this coming planting season.
The NTA started giving P6,000 free production assistance to qualified tobacco farmers in the cropping year 2023 to 2024.
