Sugar industry implements P34.4-B five-year plan

The Philippine sugar industry is implementing a P34.4-billion five-year action plan starting this year that seeks to increase production to 3.1 million metric tons (MT).

But while the plan targets production to hit 2.053 MT only on the second year of the program period, the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) previously said by the end of cropyear 2002-2003 on Aug. 31, the country will already be hitting 2.13 million MT or way ahead of schedule.

Sugar industry officials said the sugar plan will be bankrolled mainly by the private sector, with funds expected to come from commercial banks.

These will be used for irrigation, mechanization of farms, mill and refinery upgrading, marketing, transport, and the model farms.

Sugar Master Plan Foundation, Inc. executive director Archimedes Amarra said the plan excludes crop production loans since there are already existing windows from Land Bank and other government financial institutions.

He said direct government financing of around P1.08 billion or about five percent of total program cost will be used for sugar roads, research and development, nurseries, micropropagation laboratories, and training and education.

The other major investments would be for the upgrading and rehabilitation of the sugar milling sector which will require P24 billion or 58 percent of total cost, basically for the upgrading of 28 mills.

Once these mills are set on stream, milling recovery rate, currently averaging 80.68 percent in the Philippines, will approximate the world average of 85 percent.

Investments in production, on the one hand, would total P15 billion or 35 percent of total.

On the other hand, the irrigation component will require P4.3 billion while procurement of tractors and implements will cost P2.2 billion and truck procurement and improvement of sugar roads, P1.7 billion and P638 million, respectively.

Research and development will get P800 million on top of what SRA spends for the activity while training and education will get P120 million.

Amarra said that in five years, about 211,098 hectares or 59 percent (from 10 percent) of sugar lands will be fully irrigated.

The program includes the acquisition of tractors and implements sufficient to cover about 64 percent of sugarcane areas. Around 1,825 tractors will be procured, which in addition to existing ones, could cover more than 200,000 hectares. The plan also provides financing for 2,244 trucks for transport.

Also, program investments in production will raise yield from the present 59 tons cane per hectare to 75 tons per hectare while investments in mills and other facilities and infrastructure will increase recovery from 1.6 to 2.2 bags per ton cane.

Currently, existing investments in the sugar industry total about P150 billion, which employs about 556,000 people in the agricultural sector and 25,000 in the mills and refineries. The share of the sugar industry to the in 2000 economy was P33.89 billion.

There are at present 46,634 sugarcane farms cultivatedby 44,589 farmers. About 83 percent of these farms are 10 hectares and below.

To increase production, the industry aims to increase use of recommended high-yielding varieties (HYVs), with more than 60 percent of areas to be adopting HYVs and improved management practices

Amarra said that the existing seven micropropagation laboratories would be strengthened while a total of 150 one-hectare nurseries will be developed under the plan jointly by the SRA and private planter-cooperators. There will also be 15 10-hectare model farms which will be established as model farms and run on a commercial basis that will adopt new production technologies.

A foundation was established by the industry to implement the action plan, with the SRA administrator as chairman, and industry leaders as the other members of the board. At the field level, activities will be planned, coordinated, and monitored by the mill district coordinating committees (MDDCs).