Plant Rice, Not Tobacco, Says Health Alliance

“We should be covered by FCTC Article 17,” she added. Limpin also said that with the right government support, our Ilocos farmers can plant rice, instead of tobacco, which she said, has very little contribution to the country’s coffers.

According to figures from the Department of Trade and Industry, the share of tobacco to the country’s total exports remained less than 1 percent from 1995-2003.

The Bureau of Agricultural Statistics lists the major tobacco-producing provinces to include Ilocos Sur, Pangasinan and La Union with shares to the total production of 27 %, 21 % and 20 %, respectively. Other top producing provinces are Isabela with 13 % share and Ilocos Norte with 6% share. The rest of the producing provinces accounted for 13 %. Of the top producing provinces, Pangasinan had the highest production growth rate at 20.60 %. Ilocos Norte posted a negative growth at 26.8 %. The top five tobacco producing provinces come from these regions and they accounted for a combined share of 87 percent of total production and 78 percent of tobacco farmers.

According to Limpin, Lilia Medina, a tobacco farmer from Barangay San Jose, Caba, La Union, has a half-hectare land planted to tobacco during the dry season and rice during wet season.

“Medina, and the rest of the farmers, if given irrigation, can plant rice twice a year, instead of just one,” Limpin added. “They don’t have irrigation so they will plant palay only after the rainy season starts in June. They were able to plant late last year, around August due to the extended dry spell.”

Limpin said tobacco has very damaging effects on the health of the people, and the tobacco farmers themselves are unduly exposed to the green leaf syndrome, characterized by nausea, vomitting, headache, body weakness and dizziness.

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