Tobacco pulp-processing plant to be built in Ilocos

By Clarence Molina

STO. TOMAS, La Union — A tobacco pulp-processing plant to produce pulp materials for the manufacture of paper will be built in Ilocos Sur in the next few months and will be fully operational early next year.

Deputy National Security Adviser Luis “Chavit” Singson, bared this in a speech during the recent celebration here of the 22nd anniversary of the National Tobacco Administration.

Singson, who was former governor of the province, has allotted a one-hectare land as site for the plant.

Pulp produced from tobacco stalks is one of the products developed from tobacco plant by NTA researchers under the leadership of Administrator Carlitos Encarnacion.

The discovered other uses of tobacco are expected to revolutionize the tobacco industry in the north that has been the subject of negative propaganda by anti-tobacco lobbyists who have been citing the disastrous effects of cigarettes -- tobacco's chief product -- to smokers.

In a speech delivered for him by North Luzon Growth Quadrangle Commission Executive Director Hermenegildo Dumlao, Singson also announced the commercial production soon of hand-made paper, tobacco extracts, handicrafts, and tobacco dust.

Tobacco extracts have proven to be an effective pesticide against mango hoppers and sucking insects that destroy cabbage and other vegetables.

Ethanol is another NTA discovery from the tobacco plant that holds great promise for the crop as a potential source of biofuel, it was learned.

It is undergoing further development at the agency's research laboratory.

The celebration was marked by the inauguration of the tobacco-dust processing plant which is first of its kind in the country.

The dust product, processed from low-grade tobacco l eaves, has been found effective as a pesticide to eliminate snails and other pests in fishponds.