Pests hit sugar cane farms in 10 Negros areas

BACOLOD CITY — Just when the sugar milling season is near, insects have started ravaging sugar cane plantations in Negros Occidental.

The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) reported that red-striped soft scale insects (RSSI) have spread to three new areas in southern Negros Occidental days after the infestation was monitored in sugar farms in the northern part of the province.

SRA chief Pablo Luis Azcona said the harmful insects were detected in sugar farms in Ma-ao in Bago City, La Castellana and La Carlota City.

The RSSI, he said, reduces sugar content by almost 50 percent.

Earlier, the executive said the highly damaging insects were detected in sugarcane farms in Murcia, Bacolod City, Silay City, EB Magalona, Victorias City, Cadiz City and Toboso.

This brings the areas hit by the pests to six cities and four towns.

The situation led the SRA to create a task force headed by SRA Board Member David Andrew Sanson to control the infestation and seek quarantine measures from the Department of Agriculture.

Azcona called on sugar farmers to be "more vigilant" where they purchase their cane points as the infestation is suspected to have been brought to Negros from Luzon where an RSSI infestation has happened before and is still present in some farms.

Sanson appealed to farmers to "stop transporting planting materials from Luzon and other infected areas because it has been observed that transmittal of this disease came from infected cane points."