• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) has significantly reduced the spread of the red-striped soft scale insect (RSSI) in sugar-producing areas across Luzon through sustained intervention and close coordination with farmers and millers. Luzon Federation of Sugarcane Growers Association (Luzonfed) president Cornelio Toreja said the group’s members are grateful for the SRA’s continuous support, which has helped keep RSSI cases at a minimal level in Batangas and other sugar-producing provinces in Luzon.
“Since last year, SRA has supported our mill district development councils by providing farmers with equipment, pesticides, fertilizers as well as sustained prevention and control campaigns,” Toreja said in a statement.
He added that the coordinated efforts between the agency and stakeholders have been instrumental in ensuring that “RSSI in Luzon is controlled and contained.”
For 2026, SRA data showed that 233.42 hectares of standing sugarcane remain affected by RSSI, involving 128 farmers in 52 barangays.
Batangas recorded the largest affected area with 151 hectares, followed by Tarlac with 60.42 hectares, Camarines Sur with 13 hectares, and Isabela with nine hectares.
The current figures represent a substantial decline compared to last year’s report, when 1,578.25 hectares of harvested sugarcane were infested by RSSI, affecting 531 farmers in 168 barangays across Luzon.
Toreja emphasized the need to sustain monitoring and control measures, noting that there are still three to four months before the harvest season.
“We have three to four months of monitoring and ensuring that our affected areas remain low before harvest season, and we need the SRA’s help and all our farmers’ cooperation to make sure it stays controlled and contained,” he said.
During a recent meeting in Tagaytay City, representatives from Luzonfed, Luzon-based sugar millers, and SRA officials discussed the current status of the infestation and agreed that the situation is now under control.
Luzonfed and the Luzon millers also expressed their support for the SRA’s ongoing campaign against RSSI, joining other sugar industry stakeholders in calling for continued collaboration.
“We have seen how SRA’s intervention worked to minimize infestation in our farms, and if only we set aside politics and unite as an industry, the coordinated response of SRA will ensure that no farmer and no farm is left behind in fighting this infestation,” Toreja said. | GPB
