• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
About 100,000 hectares of sugarcane plantations in Negros Island have been already been affected by the drought, said Manolet Lamata, president of the United Sugar Producers Federation.
The sugar plantations in central and southern Negros Occidental have been the hardest hit areas by the effects of the El Niño phenomenon, disclosed Ma. Lourdes Almodiente, Chief Agriculturist of the Sugar Regulatory Administration.
Almodiente said they are consolidating the data on the damage to sugarcane crops brought about by the drought, which she expects to be released next week.
According to Lamata, about 300,000 hectares of land in Negros island are planted with sugarcane.
We need to pray for the rains to come, he stressed, adding that the damage to 100,000 hectares of affected sugarcane plantations would mean billions of pesos in losses.
While there are still rains in northern Negros, Panay, and Cebu, southern Negros has been experiencing almost no rain since January, Almodiente said.
The effect of the ongoing drought in the southern part of the province “is more intense,” she added.
Almodiente said the SRA and Department of Agriculture is now in the planning stages on the locations where cloud seeding operations will be conducted, which is among the interventions to minimize the impact of the drought.
Aside from the information dissemination campaign to sugar farmers they have conducted in previous months, she added that SRA also distributed irrigation facilities to recipients of its rapid propagation programs.
Additionally, Almodiente also reported that SRA is campaigning for the use of its beneficial micro organism (BMO) program, given to sugar farmers for free, through their mill district associations and offices.*
