Farmers in Tanauan City (Batangas) have successfully grown vegetables using tobacco rejects as organic fertilisers.

“These vegetables are safe for human consumption,” said city agriculturist Grace Platon after she and Dr. Isagani Catedral, a noted organic farming expert, showed officials of Philip Morris Philippines Manufacturing (PMPM) the plots where the farmers cultivated a variety of vegetables.
Tests conducted separately by the Fertiliser and Pesticide Authority (FPA) and the National Tobacco Administration (NTA) showed that no alkaloids or harmful chemicals had permeated into the vegetables, Platon said.
“This is the fruit of our partnership,” PMPM managing director Chris Nelson said as he referred to the team effort between the local government, a farmers’ federation, and PMPM in growing the vegetables that used the discarded tobacco leaves.
PMPM throws away about 50 tons of tobacco rejects every month, and experiments conducted by a waste management contractor show that such leftovers could actually yield some 25 tons of organic fertilisers. Realising the potential of these earth-friendly substances, PMPM met with a group of farmers to introduce this bio-organic fertiliser.
Following the successful harvest, PMPM community relations manager Felizardo Mercado Jr. said there would be a series of consultation meetings with the city agriculturist and the Tanauan City Farmers’ Federation to discuss how these fertilisers would be distributed and at what price. Mercado said that PMPM would be turning over the tobacco rejects to the city government for free.
“This is not altruism,” he said. “Companies inevitably have an influence on the communities they’re part of, and we believe that influence should be for the better.” (sra)