Japan has extended the Philippines a grant worth P314 million in the form of farm equipment that will benefit the country’s sugar workers.
According to the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA), a new batch of non-project grant aid from Japan has allowed the agency to deploy tractors and other farm equipment seen boosting the efficiency and productivity of sugar farmers nationwide.
The SRA said the 80-unit grant of farm equipment consists of 48 units of sugarcane planters, another 48 units of lateral flair mower and five units of power harrow collectively worth a total P314 million.
Pablo Azcona, SRA administrator, said in a statement that 51 units of tractors will be deployed to sugarcane areas in the Visayas with Negros Occidental getting the bulk at 24 units, Negros Oriental with 11 units, Iloilo will get six units, Leyte with four tractors while Cebu and Capiz will be getting three each.
Azcona said Luzon sugar farmers will get 15 tractor units while Mindanao is allocated 14 units.
Under the terms of the grant, the SRA now owns the farm machinery for which it will submit an impact assessment report to the Department Of Finance and the Japanese government three years from the program’s implementation.
To ensure the sustainability of the program, the farm machinery will be consigned to select group of farmers for a fee proportional to the cost of maintenance and upkeep of the equipment.
Azcona said the machinery are “very much timely as we just started the new milling season and we in the industry are grateful to both the Japanese government and our own government for this initiative that will go a long way in helping our sugar farmers become more efficient and productive.”
The SRA projected domestic sugar production to increase by 50,000 metric tons (MT) in crop year 2023-2024 with the additional hectares of land planted to sugarcane.
Raw sugar production in crop year 2022-2023 eased 1.6 percent to only 1.79 million MT from 1.82 million MT the previous crop year.
Azcona acknowledged sugar production could fall 10 to 15 percent this year should the impact of El Niño prove extreme.
Department of Agriculture monitoring of public markets in the National Capital Region show the retail price of refined sugar range from P84 to P110 per kilo, P80 to P95 per kilo for washed sugar and P78 to P95 for brown sugar.
SRA mill site monitoring show the price of raw sugar before milling operations were terminated in July at P3,000 per 50-kilo bags.
