• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The increase in the budget for the implementation of the Sugarcane Industry Development Act (SIDA) next year to P1.4 billion was described as a welcome development by Senator Joseph Victor Ejercito.
Ejercito, one of the principal authors of SIDA, said yesterday the original P2-billion budget was reduced to as low as P300 million in the past several years due to underutilization.
“It shows that a lot of people in the sugar industry are now availing of the SIDA funds,” the senator said in a telephone interview.
Under the law, the Department of Budget and Management is mandated to include, starting in 2016, an annual amount of P2 billion for the implementation of the SIDA, intended to increase production efficiency in sugarcane farms and sugar mills through research and technological innovation, infrastructure, and human resource development.
The fund comprises 50 percent for infrastructure support programs; 15 percent for research and development, capability building, and technology transfer activities; 15 percent for grants to block farms; 15 percent for socialized credit; and 5 percent for scholarship grants.
During the recent budget hearing, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. told the senators that the SIDA needs amendments for more flexibility in the use of the funds approved by Congress to improve the sugar industry’s productivity. | GB
