CALASIAO, Pangasinan – After every harvest of his cultured bangus (milkfish), Christopher Sibayan drains the water from his fishponds in Binmaley, a Pangasinan town known for its aquaculture industry.
When the ponds are fully drained and sun-dried, he broadcasts tobacco dust at a rate of one 25–30 kilo bag per hectare.
The tobacco dust serves a dual purpose: as a pesticide that kills mollusks and other unwanted species that compete with bangus for food, and as a fertilizer that promotes the growth of natural food for the fish.
“Tobacco dust has been used in Pangasinan fishponds for as long as I can remember. My grandparents used it, my parents used it, and now I’m using it in the farm I inherited from them,” Sibayan said.
Pangasinan fish farmers use tobacco dust to grow plankton locally called lablab—a natural algal mat composed of microscopic plants and animals that forms on the pond bottom, serving as baby food for bangus fingerlings.
Sibayan explained that for seven to ten days after the ponds are drained, water naturally seeps in from underground and through the dikes, encouraging the growth of microscopic life that coats the pond bottom with a brown mat. Soon, green algae appear, turning the pond bottom and water into a vibrant shade of green.
“The pond is now ready to be filled with about a meter of water and stocked with fingerlings,” Sibayan said.
Bangus feeds exclusively on lablab until they are one to two months old, depending on stocking density, reducing production costs. Once the lablab is depleted, farmers switch to commercial feeds.
It is only when tobacco dust is in short supply that farmers resort to commercial fertilizers to grow plankton.
Some fish farmers still rely solely on lablab grown with tobacco dust but it takes longer for the bangus to reach market size. Many consumers however, claim that this kind of bangus is more delectable.
Sibayan said fish farmers prefer tobacco dust over chicken manure—another pond fertilizer—because “we can’t be sure if chicken dung comes from poultry with diseases or organisms harmful to fish.”
The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) discourages the use of chicken manure, and Pangasinan fish farmers avoid it altogether.
BY-PRODUCT
Tobacco dust is a by-product of the tobacco industry—rejects from manufacturing and unusable plant parts such as stalks, processed into fine powder, according to the National Tobacco Administration (NTA).
NATURAL PESTICIDE
Aside from promoting plankton growth, tobacco dust also serves as a natural pesticide, as nicotine kills predators and unwanted snails.
The NTA assured that there is no risk of nicotine contaminating the fish and harming consumers, since nicotine dissipates from the water within 30 minutes.
NTA supervising science research specialist Leonora Nudo explained that nicotine decomposes in water—some parts evaporate, others transform into harmless substances like Vitamin B3 (nicotinic acid), and the rest break down completely.
In a forum of BFAR Region I, Danilo Trungco, NTA Governing Board member and fish farmer in Ilocos Norte, described tobacco dust as a pond poison that does not harm the natural environment.
“It is environment-friendly and helpful to Mother Earth,” he said.
Trungco said tobacco dust works best in dry tilapia ponds during the hottest part of the day, when heat releases the aroma that kills predators. After three to four days, plankton begins to grow and water can be added. Several days later, the nicotine will have evaporated and tilapia fingerlings can be stocked.
“While the pond water is green, your fingerlings will thrive on the lablab,” he said.
Pangasinan fish farmers are still waiting for the reopening of the Tobacco Dust Processing Plant (TDPP) in Sto. Tomas, La Union, which was damaged in a 2018 fire.
The plant is under rehabilitation, and once fully operational, the NTA hopes more pond owners will return to using the product, said plant manager Christopher Supang.
For now, Sibayan gets his tobacco dust from an agricultural supply store.
Pangasinan has around 20,000 hectares of fishponds, both freshwater and brackishwater.
THREE TYPES OF TOBACCO
There are three varieties of tobacco grown in northern Luzon—Virginia, burley (Region I), and the native variety (Region II).
Of the three, the native variety has the highest nicotine content (1–3 percent) while Virginia has the lowest at 0.7 percent.
Tobacco dust must contain at least one percent nicotine to be effective in eliminating predators in fishponds.
BY-PRODUCT WITH MANY USES
Beyond tobacco dust, tobacco is also made into particle boards, while seeds are blended with other seeds for feed. Farmers sometimes place tobacco leaves on dikes to decompose, distracting brown and green hoppers that cause rice diseases. In short, no part of the tobacco plant is wasted.
The NTA says these uses—particularly tobacco dust in aquaculture—could help sustain the “dying” tobacco industry.
Pangasinan has around 20,000 hectares of fishponds, both freshwater and brackishwater, and most of the fish farmers use tobacco dust.
“We don’t want to lose the region’s oldest industry,” the NTA said, noting that tobacco contributes about ₱20 billion a year to the regional economy and ₱90 billion to the national treasury from excise taxes.
Tobacco is the only agricultural commodity that directly returns revenue to the government and supports universal health care. A kilo of processed tobacco yields ₱600 in tax revenues.
Pangasinan itself benefits from tobacco taxes, with funds returned to farmers through farm-to-market roads, fertilizers, and other agricultural inputs.