Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson has agreed to issue an executive order creating a province-wide task force to prevent the spread of highly destructive red-striped soft scale insects (RSSI), which have now spread from sugarcane to other crops.
This development was disclosed by former Negros Occidental governor Rafael Coscolluela, who currently serves as adviser to the president of the Confederation of Sugar Producers Associations Inc.
Coscolluela, along with Gina Martin, director general of the Philippine Sugar Research Institute Foundation Inc. (PHILSURIN), and other industry stakeholders, met with Lacson at the Governor’s Office in Bacolod City on Wednesday morning.
Both Coscolluela and Martin are also former administrators of the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA).
“The sad thing is RSSI is here to stay, so we need to have a permanent structure and mechanism in place to control the pest,” Coscolluela said.
While the SRA created an RSSI task force last year, Coscolluela noted that the new provincial body “will involve more than just the sugar industry because RSSI can and has affected other crops such as corn and vegetables.”
“RSSI attacks anything with leaves,” Coscolluela said. “The focus now is not just on sugarcane, but on the pest itself, which needs control.”
The insects attach themselves to leaves and drain a plant’s vital nutrients and sap, causing the leaves to yellow, wilt, and dry up.
The executive order will establish a provincial task force to manage the RSSI crisis, involving an expanded group of program implementers—including local government units (LGUs) that were not part of the SRA’s original task force, Coscolluela said.
“It’s very critical that we go down to the level of barangays for surveillance and mapping,” Coscolluela emphasized.
“What we are facing now is that while we know the problem is here, we don’t know the exact numbers to date. We do not have real-time data”, he said.
He added that a critical job for the task force commanders will be ensuring an effective surveillance and mapping program is established to determine exactly where RSSI is located and the severity of the infestation.
Coscolluela also highlighted the urgent need to produce adequate biocontrol agents to fight the pest. The task force will assess current production capacities to determine the supply gap that needs to be filled.
Biocontrol agents can be produced in the laboratories of the SRA, PHILSURIN, the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist, and the First Farmers Association, he said.
However, stakeholders are also suggesting that sugar mills set up their own laboratories to ensure an adequate supply.
Effective control measures will have to be put in place to prevent the spread of RSSI, which will include working with Negros Oriental, Coscolluela said.
Coscolluela also said the main consensus at the meeting is that there is already an existing EO declaring a state of calamity against RSSI in Negros Occidental.
This could be the basis for further action against RSSI, Coscolluela said.*
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