Land conversion threat to sugar industry – SRA

BACOLOD CITY: One of the biggest threats now facing the sugar industry here is the loss of vast agricultural lands which are being converted to meet the growing demand of the city.

Pablo Luis Azcona, Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) chief, said on Tuesday, March 12, these lands become more and more expensive once converted.

Azcona said during a press conference at the SRA office in Bacolod that farmers are more amenable to selling their farmlands because they would enjoy the instant lump sum from the land sale which the farmers believe is equivalent to the expected profit they would get in 50 years of planting sugar.

“As the cities grow, it eats up on the farmland. So the sad effect is that the productive land are the ones being sold. They are flat and irrigated farms,” said Azcona.

“If you drive to the Bacolod-Silay Airport, all the residential land in both sides of the highway were once the most productive lands in Negros before,” he added.

“In southern Negros all the flat lands slowly are slowly becoming real estate,” Azcona furthers.

The trend runs counter to the national government’s push to reestablish and expand the government research program, especially for high-yielding varieties, Azcona pointed out.

“We are at a disadvantage compared to other countries in terms of production per hectare because of the varieties we use,” he said.

Azcona said 125 hectares of nursery farms to be given to cooperatives and small farmers and to be funded by the SRA at P85,000 per hectare in a span of six months growing.

“If you take care of it, you could get sugarcane setts (patdan) for 10 hectares,” he said.

Azcona, meanwhile, said that sugar farmers in Negros Occidental reported a drop of production of 10 percent because of the effect of dry spell caused by El Niño phenomenon.

He said big sugar farmers in other sugar producing provinces also reported the same drop in production.

“As of this moment, we have already produced 1.55 million metric tonnes of sugar, which is ahead of what we already produced at the same time last year,” he also said.

The milling this crop year may close early, Azcona said, and that some of the big sugar mills in the country have already closed while others have indicated to close this month.

“As early as now, there are already mills signifying closure like Tarlac, which has already closed, Capiz will be next, also URC in Passi, Iloilo. So that’s all surprising as well,” he said.

“With the closure of the big sugar mills, we cannot determine yet if they could hit their initial target of 1.85 million metric tons this year,” Azcona added.

He also said that sugar prices are going up but supply is going down.

“We are nearly at the end of the milling season and it is expected to close earlier than usual,” Azcona said.