Hundreds of tobacco farmers in this mineral-rich town lost their lucrative source of livelihood after a noted Classic cigarette company stopped the cultivation of tobacco as an alternative high value crop due to the reported difficulty of the mountainous terrain and the intensive effort in raising the crop in the identified barangays.
Local farmers reportedly stopped planting the aforesaid high value crop after one cropping because of the alleged extensive labor needed in producing tobacco suitable for the demand of cigarette manufacturing companies.
Because of the huge investment to be utilized in growing the crop, tobacco farmers were forced to adhere to the company’s desire to stop production for the meantime considering that local farmers could not enforce the “bayanihan system” since their neighboring farmers do not plant tobacco, thus, local farmers are falling behind tobacco farmers in the Ilocos region because they could easily adhere to the “bayanihan system.”
Earlier, experts disclosed the tobacco produced in the town is described to be high grade and that its prices do not go down below P77 per kilo.