Tobacco.org

• 5,000 hectares of tobacco farms eyed for intensified rice growing 

Some 5,000 hectares of tobacco farms are being eyed as additional areas for palay growing to help meet the rice requirements of tobacco farmers in line with the Arroyo administration’s accelerated efforts to increase palay harvest and mitigate the effect of a food crisis that is affecting the whole world.

The National Tobacco Administration (NTA) said the other day a 26,000-strong umbrella group of tobacco farmers led by the Philippine Association of Tobacco-Based Cooperatives (PATCO) and other industry stakeholders are ready to support an intensified palay production program of the Department of Agriculture (DA) in response to this global problem.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap lauded the support of the major stakeholders in the tobacco industry-- cigarette manufacturers, tobacco buyers and exporters, redrying plant and trading center operators, contract growers or farmers -- for the department’s heightened moves to achieve record high in palay harvests and raise the national self-sufficiency level in rice from 92.38 percent this year to 98 percent in 2010.

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