W

hile the cigarette industry has suffered due to excise hikes over the past four years, tobacco farmers on Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), have experienced some good years.

The island, which is among the biggest growers of Virginia tobacco in Indonesia, has increased production as prices improve.

“This year, we have produced about 37,000 tons, while in 2017 we produced 36,000,” said Syahminuddin, the chairman of the NTB chapter of the Indonesian Tobacco Farmers Association (APTI).

The island, which was recently rocked by a strong earthquake, has become the main destination for cigarette companies looking for raw material.

Syahminuddin said this year’s crop sold for more than Rp 50,000 (US$3.43) per kilogram, higher than last year when it was sold for about Rp 48,000. “Farmers are making good profits,” he added.

In an effort to curb the country’s high prevalence of smoking, the government has increased cigarette excise for the past four years, with the latest being 10 percent.

The Finance Ministry recorded that the hike had driven up the retail cigarette price to Rp 1,054 per stick this year, or about 28 percent higher than 2015.

It also recorded that tobacco production had declined from 348.10 billion sticks in 2015 to 341.73 billion in 2016 and 336.3 billion in 2017.

There are about 14,000 farmers in Lombok, 55 percent of whom are dependent on tobacco companies for seedlings and production costs. The rest of the farmers are independent smallholders who finance their own plantations.

All of them sell their harvests directly to warehouse owners and do not have access to sell tobacco outside the island.

Syahminuddin said among the major problems for the farmers were post-production facilities such as tobacco drying ovens, adding that most do not possess the tools, prompting them to dry the tobacco by burning wood, coal or oil palm shells.

The ones that gave off less emissions were ovens using palm fruit shells, he said.

“For the past few years, the farmers have been using wood, which would endanger forests in NTB in the long term.”

He also questioned the provincial share of cigarette tax and excise revenues (DBHCHT), which were rarely given to farmers.

The funds could be used to help them buy post-harvesting tools, Syahminuddin said.

The provincial administration previously used the DBHCHT fund to build coal-fired drying ovens for farmers. But using wood as a fuel have become popular since 2010.

Abdul Rahman, 46, an independent smallholder, lost everything when his crop failed in 2014.

His tobacco was rejected because it did not meet the standard that can only be produced by a drying oven.

Abdul started over last year after he saved some money and is now cultivating 1.3 hectares of land. For drying the leaves, he relies on wood and it takes a truckload to produce 1 ton of dried tobacco. “I usually use tamarind wood. It has good heat.”

He said he was also careful when picking the wood and not to take those from illegal loggers.

NTB Agriculture and Plantation Agency Husnul Fauzi said tobacco production this year had been good, despite the earthquake, because the crops were planted in East, Central and West Lombok, which were not affected by the earthquake in July and August this year.

He added that the provincial administration currently only had funds to supply seedlings to independent smallholders.

“Our target is independent smallholders, not those who have partnered with cigarette companies,” said Husnul.