Gov't allots P30-million farmers’ assistance fund

By Freddie G. Lazaro

STA. MARIA, Ilocos Sur — Farmers in the region will get the encouragement they need to increase their production that will eventually help them increase their income after the government announced to allocate some P30 million assistance fund.

This, after newly appointed Administrator Edgardo D. Zaragoza of the National Tobacco Administration disclosed his agency will administer the P30 million tobacco production assistance fund that will be directly made available to qualified tobacco farmers this season.

In a meeting with tobacco farmers at the Ilocos Sur Polytechnic State College Campus here, Zaragoza said the tobacco assistance fund is 150 percent more than the P12 million assistance funds last year.

“This tobacco assistance fund is a soft loan with very low interest rates, which the farmers will pay back after harvest season,” he said.

Aside from the Virginia tobacco growers, the Burley tobacco producing farmers are also qualified to avail of the soft loan provided they will pass the guidelines set by the NTA technicians.

“We are targeting at least 2,400 tobacco farmer-beneficiaries from this assistance offered by our office,” he said.

The new administrator, with the agency’s technical experts, is busy conducting a series of consultations with farmers from the different tobacco producing provinces nationwide to advocate the massive production of high-quality tobacco.

He said despite presence of smear campaign against tobacco smoking by various health groups, the demand for tobacco remains very high in the world market.

“With the great demand of tobacco in the world market, this is a great opportunity for us to increase production and improve the quality of tobacco we produce from our country to earn more income for our government coffers and help our farmers to raise their standard of living,” Zaragoza said.

“All our initiatives and efforts to improve our tobacco industry are gearing towards the fulfillment of President Benigno S. Aquino III’s mandate to boost the quality of life of every Filipino,” he added.

The administrator is maximizing the agency’s well–trained technical experts in tobacco production in teaching the farmers on new technologies to produce high quality tobacco.