VIGAN CITY – The high demand for tobacco dust in the domestic market could bring the local tobacco industry to greater heights and save it from possible collapse.

This was the opinion of Administrator Carlitos Encarnacion of the National Tobacco Administration (NTA) who cited a breakthrough in government researches on tobacco dust that proved other uses of tobacco plant, not only in cigarette-making.

He said researches conducted by NTA showed that tobacco dust can be an efficient snail-killing molluscicide for fishpond use and eventually as fertilizer for the growth of ‘lablab’ or algae, a nutritious food for fish.

Encarnacion revealed that all fishpond-owners nationwide are in need of a total of 434 million kilograms of tobacco dust for two cycles of fish production each year.

The statistics was based on a study conducted by NTA’s scientists and researchers after a successful pilot-testing of tobacco dust in 12 fishpond sties in Paombong, Bulacan last year.

Encarnacion said Regions 3 and 6 alone would need 250 million kilos of tobacco dust for fishpond use.

According to him, it is more economical for fishpond owners to use tobacco dust than chemical-based snail-killing that are now being sold at very prohibitive prices.

Being an organic material, the tobacco dust is also free from environmental hazard.

“The fish farmer-cooperators in our pilot projects were able to save P28,000 per hectare per production cycle with the use of tobacco dust. They (fish farmers) also avoided health hazards arising from the use of cyanide-based and toxic chemical inputs,” he added.

Due to the great demand for tobacco dust locally, the NTA asked the national government to establish the country’s first tobacco dust production plant whose machines could churn out dust materials generated from ground tobacco leaves.

“Our agency, along with the Agriculture department headed by Secretary Domingo Panganiban, has already submitted a P223-million budget proposal to operate the project once the production plant is established,” Encarnacion said.

The project, he added, could bring sufficient food for the farmers through increased economic productivity as well as additional job opportunities for them in fulfillment of the two related goals under the President’s Ten Point Agenda. (PNA)