Tobacco grower Pablito Batara improves productivity by integrating vegetable farming in tobacco production in his farm in Masical, Baggao, Cagayan. According to NTA Cagayan Branch Manager Corazon R. Riazonda, Batara was a beneficiary of the NTA Vegetable Seeds Distribution project last year, and one of the 52 tobacco-corn farmers who comprise the Block Farm in Masical, one of the two block farm sites in Cagayan.
Manager Riazonda and her staff visited Batara’s 200 square-meter lot planted to eggplant, corn, mustard, string beans, onions, tomato, and pechay, during the monitoring of newly transplanted tobacco under the Block Farming Project of NTA Cagayan on February 8.
With the Block Farm Project under the Sustainable Tobacco Enhancement Program, NTA is promoting integrated farming system through vegetable production, legume and corn production, and planting fruit-bearing trees. If the integrated/diversified area is multiplied in a Block Farm, especially complemented with marketing opportunities, it translates into a higher income for the farmers.[Photo credit: NTA Cagayan]