PEÑARRUBIA, Abra (PIA) – More than 500 farmers from the different barangays here benefited from the local government unit’s (LGUs) share of tobacco excise tax through the distribution of farm machineries, seeds, and fertilizers.
Each tobacco farmers’ association received water pumps, irrigation hose, and inorganic fertilizers with a total worth of P8 million.
Mayor Jane M. Cecilia and municipal government staff led the distribution at the municipal auditorium recently.
Cecilia said that the agriculture assistance was based from requests of farmers during the consultation meetings conducted by the local government unit.
“Isu dagitoy ti kanayon da nga dawaten nga masapul da, isu dagitoy a naited ket babaen ti konsultasion kadagiti amin a farmers gapu ta damagen mi kanyada nu ania ti masapulda tapno maipaay kadakuada,” Mayor Cecilia said.
[These machineries are always requested by the farmers during consultations when we ask them what they need.]
“Many tobacco farmers were affected by the recent drought so we continue to provide them assistance to boost their production,” she added.
For tobacco farmer Romel Gaban from Brgy. Dumayco, the most challenging part of tobacco production is growing the seeds.
“Kasla met lang ti rice nga 3 months ti panagdakkkel da, narigat met laeng ti agptaud ti tabako isu nga dakkel nga yaman ko ti LGU ta naikkan kami ti tulong para ti produksion,” Gaban said.
[Like rice farming which takes 3 months of cultivation, tobacco farming is also challenging so I thank the LGU for this assistance for production.]
As provided under Republic Act 7171 and RA 8240, tobacco-growing municipalities get a share from tobacco excise tax collections based on the volume of leaves produced by their local tobacco growers. (CAGT-PIA CAR, Abra)
