Tobacco still lifeline for many farmers

By Prapti Widinugraheni

MATARAM, West Nusa Tenggara (JP): Despite worldwide anti- smoking campaigns, Indonesia's tobacco and cigarette industry continues to flourish, sustaining up to 13.6 million people including the 3.4 million workers it directly employs.

Suhirman Muljodihardjo, the Ministry of Agriculture's director for production, said that in 1985 the country's tobacco industry contributed Rp 860 billion (US$386.3 million) in duty payments alone, which almost tripled to Rp 2.5 trillion in 1993.

Meanwhile, revenues from tobacco exports also grew from Rp 10.1 billion in 1985 to Rp 220 billion in 1993.

"These figures might increase by about Rp 300 billion a year," he said.

While health experts have linked tobacco, cigarettes and smoking to coronary diseases and lung cancer, their important role in providing farmers and workers with a livelihood cannot be disregarded.

"Indonesia focuses its tobacco and cigarette industry on providing employment to people and boosting their incomes. However, the government will simultaneously strive to minimize the industry's negative impact on health," Suhirman said, adding that this was possible by using types of tobacco low in nicotine and tar.

Based on this policy, the government has continued to develop the tobacco industry, which was started by the Dutch colonial rulers at the beginning of the century.

Ever since then, Indonesia has been growing various types of tobacco. "Pure" tobacco is used for the production of kretek, or clove-blended cigarettes, "Virginia" tobacco for white, non-clove cigarettes, "Besuki-NO", "Vorstenlanden" and "Deli" tobacco for cigars and "Lumajang" tobacco for pipe blends.

According to Suhirman, the pure tobacco supply for the domestic kretek cigarette industry is now sufficient, though high stockpiling has resulted in a need to limit the plantation of pure tobacco.

Supplies of Besuki-NO, Vorstenlanden and Deli tobacco for the export market, he said, are also saturated, resulting in limitations of plantation areas for these types of tobacco as well.

The white, non-clove cigarette industry meets 12.5 percent of the country's total cigarette market. However, the industry is still in need of Virginia, Burley and Oriental tobacco, which the country imports to meet demand.

Surplus

Over the last decade, both imports and exports of tobacco have increased. In 1993, Indonesia had a surplus of 32,882 tons of tobacco worth $110.4 million.

According to the Directorate General of Plantations, areas of tobacco plantations dropped from 186,106 hectares in 1985 to 162,716 hectares in 1989 due to the government's policy to limit the areas of certain types of tobaccos and to ensure a balance between market supply and demand.

Area limitations are also intended to guarantee good prices for both tobacco producers and consumers.

In 1985, more than 60 percent of the tobacco plantations produced pure tobacco, 27 percent Virginia and 13 percent Besuki tobacco.

In 1990, however, tobacco plantations were expanded to 216,897 hectares but dropped again to 132,319 hectares in 1992 and increased back to 170,382 hectares in 1994.

Tobacco production also fluctuated, dropping from 113,968 tons in 1985 to 91,849 tons in 1989 before rising back to 134,920 tons in 1990. In 1994, tobacco production dropped again to 108,078 tons.

Virginia tobacco made up 31 percent of the country's total tobacco production in 1985, 18 percent in 1989, 24 percent in 1990 and 25 percent in 1994.

Lombok

Although Virginia tobacco is mainly grown in Bojonegoro and Jombang (both in East Java), Garut (West Java), Klaten (Central Java), Tanah Karo (North Sumatra), Bali and Lombok, Suhirman said that the country's best quality Virginia tobacco, which is judged by its coloring, nicotine and sugar content, is grown in Lombok.

Lombok is regarded as having the most suitable soil and climate for growing Virginia tobacco. From this island, some 8,000 tons of oven-dried Virginia tobacco leaves are expected to be yielded by the end of this year's harvesting season.

Planting tobacco, however, is not without problems.

According to Soerono, head of West Nusa Tenggara's plantation office, the quality of Virginia tobacco in Lombok, like other agricultural commodities, depends greatly on climate.

"Unexpected changes in the weather disturb the growth of tobacco plants and influence productivity and quality," he said.

Significant price fluctuations also determine the enthusiasm of farmers to plant tobacco in the following planting season.

"If prices are good in one year, all the farmers will plant tobacco in the next planting season, and prices will fall in the next harvesting year," he said.

Farmers usually sell tobacco leaves which are already oven- dried to cigarette companies.

An executive of PT BAT Indonesia, which buys up to 30 percent of Lombok's Virginia tobacco production, explained that tobacco seeds need about five months before they are ready for harvest.

Planting Virginia tobacco is usually done from April to July, the end of the rainy season.

Harvesting, which takes up to five months depending on the areas, is done by picking two to three leaves at a time from each tobacco plant.

Leaf-picking is done starting from the bottom. The first bottom-layer leaves have the lowest quality. Several weeks later, middle-layer leaves are picked and finally the top-layer leaves are taken.

While blended cigarette producers consider the top-most leaves as having the best quality, white cigarette manufacturers opt for the middle layers of Virginia tobacco to produce high-quality cigarettes.

Before farmers sell and grade the leaves, they bake them intensively for five days, starting from 90 degrees Fahrenheit and gradually increasing to 170 degrees. Drying is intended to reduce the moisture content of the leaves from 60 percent to a maximum of 15 percent.

After the tobacco is graded in Lombok, it is sent to cigarette factories where it is blended with other ingredients and made into cigarettes.