• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The Red Striped Soft Scale Insect infestations in Visayas sugarcane farms appears to be expanding, as almost 262 more hectares of cane fields have been affected within a period of one week.
Damage to affected RSSI cane fields increased from 3,394.82 hectares in August 11 to 3,656.69 hectares in the 19th, based on reports of the Sugar Regulatory Administration.
Almost 3,447 hectares of the affected areas, are in Negros Occidental, 82 ha in Iloilo, 27.7 ha in Capiz, 24.8 ha in Negros Oriental and 12 ha in Leyte. A total of 2,026 farmers are affected.
Despite the increase, SRA recorded 291.98 ha of sugarcane farms having recovered from infestations during the same period.
SRA head Pablo Luis Azcona has ordered the agency research team to start testing affected harvestable canes for sugar content, to quantify the losses that can be attributed to the RSSI infestation.
Based on a study, the RSSI infestation may reduce sugar content by 50 percent.
The SRA is also developing Metarhizium anisopliae and Beauveria bassiana, two beneficial fungi, to combat the RSSI infestation in sugarcane farms.
These natural, non-chemical agents were discovered to aggressively kill RSSI, and are undergoing mass production studies to provide a free, sustainable, biological control solution to farmers as part of an integrated pest management approach.*
