Tobacco waste gets new lease on farm life

BALUNGAO, PANGASINAN— After tobacco farmers in this town harvest the prime leaves sought by cigarette companies, most of the remaining plants are left in the fields, destined to be discarded.

But for 75-year-old farmer-leader Oftociano Manalo, those unwanted leaves are far from useless.

After the harvest, Manalo walks through tobacco fields, gathering small leaves that farmers leave behind because they are too young or damaged for commercial use. He also cuts about a foot from the tips of the plants, where young leaves are still sprouting.

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He bundles the leaves and plant tips and places them at the outlets of irrigation canals that carry water into his rice fields.

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As water flows through the bundles, Manalo said, it carries compounds from the tobacco leaves into the rice paddies, helping control pests that threaten his palay.

No elaborate process

“Water absorbs chemical compounds that are deadly to golden snails, which voraciously consume palay plants, and other pests that are detrimental to the crop,” he told the Inquirer a recent interview.

According to the National Tobacco Administration (NTA), the primary chemical in tobacco leaves (Nicotiana tabacum) responsible for killing pests is nicotine, a naturally occurring alkaloid that acts as a potent neurotoxin to insects.

Other alkaloids found in tobacco, including anatabine, nornicotine and anabasine, also contribute to deterring and killing pests, the NTA said.

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Studies have shown that tobacco leaves can be used as a source of natural insecticide. The leaves may be soaked in water to extract nicotine and other compounds, with the resulting solution applied to plants to control certain pests.

For Manalo, however, there is no elaborate process. He simply places bundles of tobacco scraps along the irrigation waterways and lets the water carry the compounds into his rice fields.

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“When the palay absorbs the natural alkaloids, flying pests are also repelled and fly away. That is why my farms are basically pest-free,” he explained.

This raises a question: Can rice plants absorb nicotine, and could palay somehow become “addicted” to it, like people who smoke cigarettes?

Reduce spending

Villasis agriculture officer Dionisio Cariño said rice has a different physiology from tobacco, which naturally produces nicotine.

“Nicotine in the ground simply wafts into the surrounding air and attaches to the palay plants, which then become repulsive to pests,” Cariño said in a separate interview.

The NTA said studies have found tobacco extracts effective against various crop pests.

The extracts can also be used on vegetables, fruits, flowers and ornamental plants.

In Manalo’s case, however, the leaves are used raw, along with plant tips and twigs. His experiment began about two decades ago after learning about pesticides made from tobacco extracts.

He said the discarded leaves are virtually free and could help farmers reduce spending on costly chemical pesticides.

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Manalo also uses dried tobacco plants as organic matter, plowing them into the soil for the next rice crop. Cariño said tobacco leaves contain nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, which can help improve soil fertility when properly composted. INQ