• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The red-striped soft scale insect (RSSI) infestation in sugarcane farms in the Visayas appears to be expanding as almost 262 more hectares of cane fields were affected within a period of one week.
Damage to affected RSSI cane fields increased from 3,394.82 hectares on Aug. 11 to 3,656.69 hectares on Aug. 19, based on report of the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA).
Of the affected areas, 3,447 hectares are in Negros Occidental, 82 hectares in Iloilo, 27.7 hectares in Capiz, 24.8 hectares in Negros Oriental, and 12 hectares in Leyte. A total of 2,026 farmers have been affected.
However, SRA also recorded 291.98 hectares of sugarcane farms that recovered from infestation in the same period.
SRA Administrator Pablo Luis Azcona has ordered the agency research team to start testing harvestable affected canes for sugar content to determine how much losses are attributed to RSSI infestation.
Based on a study, the RSSI infestation may reduce sugar content by 50 percent.
The SRA is developing Metarhizium anisopliae and Beauveria bassiana, two beneficial fungi, to combat the RSSI infestation in sugarcane farms.
These natural, non-chemical agents were discovered to aggressively kill RSSI and are undergoing mass production studies to provide a free, sustainable, biological control solution to farmers as part of an integrated pest management approach.| GB
