Tobacco production grew almost double in Mindanao as farmers see crop’s cash potentials
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 19 July) – With more Mindanao farmers realizing the lucrative potentials of tobacco cultivation, the volume of the cash crop produced in the southern Philippines grew by almost double last year from the previous year.
Data obtained by MindaNews from the National Tobacco Administration (NTA) showed that the volume of tobacco produced in Mindanao in 2024 reached 9.7 million kilograms (kg) from 5.4 million kg in 2023, an increase of 44 percent.
For both years, Misamis Oriental was the top tobacco-producing province in Mindanao with a volume of 4.3 million kg and 7.7 million kg in 2023 and 2024, respectively.
In 2024, Maguindanao del Sur produced 1.4 million kg of the non-food commodity, a significant increase of about 62 percent from the 550,534.31 kg produced the previous year.
The other major tobacco-producing provinces in Mindanao are Zamboanga Sibugay, North Cotabato, Agusan del Sur and Agusan del Norte, NTA said.
Mindanao, the second largest island-grouping in the Philippines after Luzon, has 28 provinces grouped into six regions.
The main tobacco cultivated in Mindanao is “batek,” a native variety. It can be harvested after three to four months on optimal growing conditions.
“More Mindanao farmers are planting tobacco, and with the growing hectares planted to the crop, the yield in the island grew last year,” Ma. Mercedes Ayco, NTA Mindanao Outreach Office head, said in a phone interview in Cebuano.
“Tobacco is a viable crop to grow in Mindanao that can provide better income for farmers,” she added.
Based on NTA data, there were 4,630 farmers tilling 2,963.59 hectares of tobacco in Mindanao in 2023.
In 2024, the area planted with Batek tobacco expanded to 4,414.74 hectares involving 8,129 farmers, it added.
Ayco noted that the markets for native tobacco are mostly domestic with “far and few in between from foreign buyers.”
The leaves are either bought and sold as tresbe, which is shredded and rolled in paper or lomboy (java plum) leaf to be smoked, and for chewing (mama) by those who patronized them.
Ayco said they expect more Mindanao farmers to plant tobacco in the coming years with its lucrative cash potentials, pointing out that the best price nowadays for a top quality harvest fetches P700 per kilo in Misamis Oriental.
In his 60s, Agapito Layan Sr., a tobacco farmer in Alabel, Sarangani, attested that the crop enabled him and his wife to raise seven children and send them to high school. They now have their own families.
“The income from tobacco farming is way better than corn farming. I raised my family mostly from tobacco farming,” Layan told this reporter in 2023 in his half-hectare farm.
On a good harvest, Layan revealed that he could earn then P150,000 from tobacco, which, according to him, is three times the net income from corn.
For the first-class or those in the upper part of the tobacco plant, a bunch of 100 leaves is bought by their buyer at P600, he said.
Layan plants tobacco once a year and after harvest, would either plant corn or vegetables to complete the annual farming cycle.
Corn, which can be harvested after four months, is capital intensive in terms of the inputs, the reason why Layan stuck to tobacco farming in the past four decades, according to him.
Ayco said that they have not fully documented the tobacco farmers in Sarangani province due to their “limited manpower.”
Belinda Sanchez, NTA administrator, also encouraged Mindanao farmers to cultivate tobacco due to its lucrative cash potentials.
“The more income the farmers earn, (the more it) will boost their purchasing power to buy their foods and other basic needs in their household,” she said in a statement.
In January last year, the NTA launched the five-year Sustainable Tobacco Enhancement Program (STEP) during the first Mindanao Tobacco Industry Summit in El Salvador City, Misamis Oriental.
Under the STEP, the NTA aims to improve Mindanao’s tobacco industry by closely working with the local government units to strengthen and expand the existing tobacco areas, aiming for the sustainability of the industry in the island.
STEP includes the implementation of projects such as irrigation and water management, provision of farm machinery, value-added processing and marketing assistance, credit and financing, training and capacity building for tobacco farmers as part of Mindanao’s tobacco industry development plan.
Sanchez said that tobacco is the only cash crop in the country that has approved floor prices and remains a steady source of income for thousands of Filipino families, providing livelihood opportunities and supporting rural economies.
Currently, about 2.2 million Filipinos are financially dependent on tobacco, including at least 430,000 farmers, farm workers, and their family members, NTA data showed. (Bong S. Sarmiento / MindaNews)
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