Negros sugar farms hit hard by drought

BACOLOD CITY: Sugar plantations in central and southern Negros Occidental have been hit hard by the El Niño phenomenon, raising fears the damage could go to around a billion pesos.

Manuel Lamata, president of the United Sugar Producers Federation, the country’s largest independent sugar planters’ group, said he estimates that about 100,000 hectares (ha) of total 300,000 ha of sugar plantations on Negros island have been affected by drought.

“That means billions of pesos of losses,” said Lamata, adding, “We need to pray for rain to come.”

Ma. Lourdes Almodiente, chief agriculturist of the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA), said the effect of the ongoing drought in the southern part of the province “is more intense.”

“In northern Negros, as well as in Cebu and Panay, there are rains unlike what is happening in southern Negros, where there is almost no rain since January this year,” noted Almodiente.

She said that they are now consolidating the data to know the impact of drought.

“We expect to release the data next week,” she added.

As part of its intervention to minimize the impact of drought, she said the SRA has earlier launched an information dissemination for sugar farmers to prepare them for the El Niño.

“We are also giving away irrigation facilities to recipients of rapid propagation programs of the SRA,” she added.

The agency is also campaigning for the use of its beneficial microorganism (BMO) which is given to sugar farmers for free through their mill district offices and associations, Almodiente said.

The BMO, she said, is a nitrogen-fixing technology developed by the SRA.

She said that farmers cannot use chemical fertilizer during the dry season as there is no irrigation.

Almodiente said the SRA, the Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Soil and Water Management are in discussions on how to implement cloud seeding operations.

“There is no date yet on when it will be implemented,” she said.