BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL G. BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – The unabated increase in fertilizer cost is causing trouble to the sugar industry such as in Negros Occidental at a time when the milling season is already peaking and sugar planting has commenced in many areas.
Former Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) board member, Atty. Dino Yulo said prices of fertilizers have more than doubled compared to last year.
Urea, the fertilizer grade most heavily used by farmers, was selling around P900 per 50-kilo bag about 18 months ago.
“Now we are buying it at P2,300 to P2,400 per bag,” Yulo said.
Planters have been feeling the effects since the last planting season. Several months ago they appealed for national intervention, particularly from the Department of Agriculture and Department of Trade and Industry.
“Coupled with that is also the petroleum price hike that has almost doubled as well, with diesel fuel breaching the P50 per liter mark,” Yulo said.
These price hikes in two major farm inputs will definitely have a “severe impact” in the sugar industry, he warned.
With super typhoon “Odette” affecting most of southern Negros that even led to the temporary stoppage of sugar mills, planters may not be able to survive if DTI won’t ensure that fertilizers’ cost are kept at bay, said Yulo.
Since September there have been appeals for fertilizer subsidies and price caps.
“Our production cost is skyrocketing. With the sugar planting season now commencing, we do not know how our producers can survive this, especially the farmers in the south,” Yulo said.
Last year, Negros Occidental governor Eugenio Jose Lacson hoped that national leaders would address the sharp rise in the price of fertilizers.
He suspected that the reason behind the increase was the high cost of fuel.
Confederation of Sugar Producers Association, Inc. (Confed) president Raymond Montinola warned of low farmers’ productivity and affect the government’s food security program./PN
