BACOLOD City – The Confederation of Sugar Producers (CONFED) – Negros Panay is urging Western Visayas legislators to make representations before the House and the Senate to rectify the budget cut that will see the Sugar Industry Development Act (SIDA) fund for the province slashed from nearly P2 billion to P500 million.
Confed chairman Nicholas Ledesma said the budget cut should not push through since SIDA utilization reached P1.2 billion last year, majority of which went to infrastructure and scholarships.
The Sugar Regulatory Administration’s (SRA) records showed that, of the provision in the SIDA, only the funds for socialized credit has been underutilized – largely due to the stringent process involved in availing the program which makes it difficult for small farmers to apply for and access.
Ledesma said, with the recent abolition of the Philippine Sugar Corporation (Philsucor), they were pressed to appeal that socialized credit availability must be made more simple for small farmers and agrarian reform beneficiaries that comprise almost 90 percent of sugar producers and for whom the SIDA law was intended, to make the sugar industry more competitive.
The budget cut would have a drastic effect on the industry’s endeavor to hasten mechanization this year as well, he added.
He further said, “We also urge that the budget for research and development must be kept intact as this is necessary for the industry’s sustainability.”
“We appeal as well to SRA to be more aggressive in program implementations and to create a desk that will solely work on SIDA and how to make this more accessible to our industry stakeholders,” his statement added.
Ledesma continued, “we see the need for the creation of an oversight committee to see to it that programs are indeed workable and addressing the present needs of the farmers.”
According to CONFED, “[they] have suffered enough in the past two years and this move will further dampen [the industry’s] situation. We strongly appeal to our solons to seek a review of the budget and give the industry our due to make it globally competitive and sustainable.”
Sen. Cynthia Villar earlier said that due to underspending, for next year the SIDA budget will be P500 million only compared to this year’s budget which is P1.2 billion./PN
