NTA to release P100M tobacco production grant to farmers mid-December

The National Tobacco Administration (NTA) on Wednesday announced it is ready to distribute the P100 million crop production grant to qualified tobacco farmers nationwide.

In a statement, the NTA said 16,666 tobacco farmers were identified as recipients of the cash assistance amounting to P6,000 each, which will be distributed on or before December 15, 2024.

The cash aid would cover tobacco farmer-recipients’ production for cropping year 2024-2025, which began in September 2024 and will conclude by June 2025.

The tobacco authority said the recipients were identified by the agency’s branch offices based on the guidelines set and approved by the NTA Governing Board. 

The NTA said that of the total 16,666 recipients of the cash assistance, 9,055 are farmers listed under the NTA's Tobacco Contract Growing System (TCGS) program, and 7,611 are non-TCGS farmers.

Under the TCGS program, farmer-recipients should have planted tobacco in one hectare of farmland and below.

Meanwhile, the non-TCGS farmer-recipients should have grown tobacco in a half-hectare farmland and below, both for cropping years 2023-2024 and 2024-2025.

The NTA said that beneficiaries of the cash assistance must be registered tobacco farmers with the agency and are 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, such as plow, harrow, sprayer, work animal, irrigation pump, and curing bar/air curing shed, and should have adequate sources of good quality irrigation water and 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,” it said.

The number of recipients of the cash aid per NTA branch office are as follows: 

• Abra – 992 tobacco farmers
• Batac (Ilocos Norte) – 2,778 farmers
• Cagayan – 700 farmers
• Candon (Ilocos Sur) – 2,573 farmers
• Isabela – 2,925
• La Union – 1,667
• Mindanao – 1,666
• Pangasinan – 1,765
• Vigan (Ilocos Sur) – 1,600

The NTA said it started giving P6,000 production assistance to qualified tobacco farmers in the cropping year 2023-2024. 

The cash aid was funded through the General Appropriation Act (GAA). 

It aims to augment the production support being extended by Buying Firms, Local Government Units (LGUs), and Farmer Cooperatives to the tobacco farmers to enhance quality tobacco production that eventually helps them increase their income. 

“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% of the gross domestic product (GDP) and 6% of the overall annual tax revenue collections,” said Agriculture Undersecretary Deogracias Victor Savellano.

—VAL, GMA Integrated News