In just one week, 262 hectares of sugar land in the Visayas were monitored with Red striped soft-scale insect infestation, bringing the total number of land area infested to 3,656 hectares as recorded last August 19.
Of these, 3,594 hectares are standing canes, with almost 3,447 hectares in Negros Occidental, 82 hectares in Iloilo, 27.7 hectares in Capiz, 24.8 hectares in Negros Oriental and 12 hectares in Leyte, affecting over 1,900 farmers.
The remaining 62.5 hectares are owned by four planters, mostly in Cadiz City and Manapla, that allowed their harvestable infested canes for production study by the researchers of the Sugar Regulatory Administration to determine the loss, or decrease in sugar content in affected canes, if any.
Studies in Egypt show that RSSI infestation can lower sugar content by as much as 50 percent.
SRA Administrator Pablo Luis Azcona has issued a directive to the research team to shift their gear in monitoring effects of RSSI in harvestable canes of at least 9-10 months old to provide the agency a better understanding of whether the infestation will affect production estimates for the coming crop year.
Since RSSI was first discovered in May, infestation has multiplied by over 4,000 percent, the highest of which were in the months of June and July where over a thousand hectares were infested in just one month, attributable perhaps to the heat condition when RSSI are known to thrive.
24 towns and cities in Negros Occidental have reported RSSI infestation with La Carlota City topping the list with 370 hectares, followed by the town of Murcia with 348 hectares and Cadiz City with 324 hectares.
In terms of congressional district, the third district has the highest infestation recorded at 1,181.8 hectares, followed by the fourth district with 805 hectares, second district at 800.7 hectares, fifth district with 319 hectares, first district with 187 hectares, the lone district of Bacolod with 169.4 hectares and the sixth district with only Kabankalan City reporting an infestation covering 46 hectares.
Data from SRA also showed almost 292 hectares are in recovering status from the infestation. Based on field reports, canes have shown positive results after five days of spraying insecticides. For 2-8 months old canes with extremely mild to moderate infestation, farmers sprayed Wokozim / Grander / Furadan, Malathion, Lannate / Starkle / Equip, Cymbush, Pag-asa, Alika, Malathion, Fusion, Chlorpyrifos (Dage 30 EC, Nordox) while farmers in Capiz sprayed their 3-4 months old severely infested canes with Chlorpyrifos (Dage 30 EC) that recovered.
Currently, SRA-La Granja Agricultural Research Center is conducting field trials and mass production of entomo-pathogenic fungi against RSSI.