Gov’t, industry players join hands to solve low sugarcane yield

Yulo said they are scouting at some new areas for sugarcane plantation, and hopefully come up with a roadmap as stakeholders and government hold a sugar summit in February 2020. (Shutterstock Photo)

MANILA — The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) and stakeholders have collaborated to address low yields in sugarcane farming.

Emilio Bernardino Yulo, SRA Board Planters Representative, in a chance interview over the weekend, said they are looking to map out a consolidated plan on how to increase sugarcane production to meet the local demand and compete with Asean neighbors.

“We hope to come up with a consolidated plan, we will take a look at productivity (and) efficiency. We want short term, medium term and long-term solutions with the end in view of at least being in parity with our Asean neighbors because that’s always the benchmark used against Philippine sugar,” he said.

Yulo said they are scouting at some new areas for sugarcane plantation, and hopefully come up with a roadmap as stakeholders and government hold a sugar summit in February 2020.

“This is not just a roadmap for the industry made up by the industry. We will have government with us, the Senate will be there (summit),” he said.

Sugar stakeholders met last week and agreed to collaborate on the following projects:

* Regional benchmarking of best practices in sugarcane farming — the best practices and modern technologies at the various sugarcane regions will be surveyed and packaged as training material in sugarcane farming.

The output of the benchmarking project will be used in roadshows or incorporated in the training modules of the Outreach Program of the Sugarcane Industry (OPSI) and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA)-accredited training centers.

* Capacity building — SIMAG Foundation and Planters Associations with TESDA-accredited training centers will handle the training incorporating the best practices in sugarcane farming and SRA will provide the funds, including the acquisition of necessary farm machinery and equipment that can be used in their sugarcane farming training modules.

* Upgrading of PhilSuRin (Philippine Sugar Research Institute) Research Laboratory — SRA will fund the acquisition of various laboratory equipment of the PhilSuRin for its breeding projects and extension services to the farmers in proximate sugarcane mill districts.

The SRA and the industry players have the resources and expertise which can be bundled into one to make the industry competitive next year and beyond.

Low farm productivity can be addressed through the joint efforts of industry players and sugar end-users, specifically the beverage manufacturers which are large consumers of sugar.

At present, Yulo said the country’s domestic consumption is about 2.4 million metric tons (MMT) to 2.6 MMT.

“We’re producing roughly 2 MMT so the shortage is about 400,000 MT to 600,000 MT. If we improve 10 percent, that would be 200,000 MT every two years. So, for after six years, we will have sufficiency in sugar,” he noted.

Yulo said if sugar production reaches 2.5 MMT to 2.6 MMT “we don’t have to talk about importation, we just have to talk about pricing,” he said.