The Department of Agriculture has allocated a 2027 budget of P300 million for the development of laboratories or incubation centers to create bioagents versus the red-striped soft scale insects per municipality where sugarcane is planted, DA Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel Jr. said on Wednesday, August 19.
Tiu Laurel, who made the announcement in his speech at the opening of the 72nd PhilSuTech Annual National Convention in Cebu, said they are also putting on standby chemicals to fight the RSSI spread.
The secretary has also mandated all available DA laboratories to augment the production of RSSI bio-control fungi so it is readily available.
The sugarcane industry is at critical crossroads, he said, pointing out that aside from the RSSI ravaging sugarcane farms across the country, farmers are dealing with high production costs, rising input prices, labor shortages, limited access to technology and financing, and climate change.
Tiu Laurel also explained that “sugar importation is not the policy of this administration, it is a tool for price and market stabilization to be used when necessary and under clearly defined circumstances.”
“When there is a temporary supply gap we may use imports to prevent excessive price volatility and protect consumers, but we must do so without undermining the farmers who keep our domestic sugar industry alive,” Laurel said.
He said their fundamental policy remains clear, “we want a Philippine sugarcane industry that is stronger, more productive, competitive, and self-reliant.”
Laurel said for future sugar imports they have devised a new rule that will be brought to the industry for consultation. “We will make sure that in future importations we will just import just enough for what the country needs, not more, not less,” he said.
Numerous sugar industry stakeholders have blamed the drop in millgate sugar prices on over importation.
The agriculture secretary, in his speech, also underscored the vital role of the Philippine Sugar Technologists Association (PhilSuTech) in helping the sugarcane industry turn science and innovation into higher productivity, better incomes, and greater resilience.
Laurel said the association’s expertise will be increasingly important as the industry confronts rising production costs, labor shortages, limited access to technology and financing, climate change, and the spread of the red-striped soft scale insect (RSSI).
“PhilSuTech has always been an important partner of our sugar industry, bringing science, technology, and expertise closer to the people who need them most,” Tiu Laurel said.
He said the industry must move beyond simply managing one crisis after another and instead build a sector that can anticipate problems, adapt quickly, and become more productive and competitive.
For Tiu Laurel, such measures capture the kind of practical innovation that the industry needs. He urged stakeholders to view challenges as opportunities for transformation, citing mechanization as an answer to labor shortages, climate-smart agriculture as a response to climate risks, and science and technology as pathways to higher yields.
“The technology we develop must work for the farmer,” he said. “If it cannot help them produce more, reduce costs, save labor, manage risks, or earn better, then we have to ask ourselves, what good is it?”
He stressed that innovation cannot remain inside laboratories, universities, technology centers, or conference halls. It must reach the sugarcane fields and deliver results farmers can see and use.
Tiu Laurel also emphasized the need for a stable and predictable business environment so farmers can invest with confidence that higher productivity will translate into viable markets.*
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