VICTORIAS CITY, Negros Occidental. — The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) is seeking approval before the end of the year funding for the Sugar Industry Development Act (SIDA) in 2024.
Pablo Azcona, SRA administrator, told reporters in a briefing here over the weekend this will give the agency a good start for the year and have ample time to spend the budget for SIDA which provides a yearly fund of P2 billion starting 2016.
However, allocations for the fund have been fluctuating as it has not been utilized efficiently mainly because farmers fail to comply with requirements of banks for loans.
For this year, only P1 billion was approved.
In previous years, SIDA allocation have been reduced due to a three-year delay in the purchase of P500 million machineries and equipment. The SRA has since taken over the bidding of the materials to facilitate the acquisition.
The SRA said at present, 50 percent of the SIDA fund goes to the construction of farm-to-market roads (FMR) and the other 50 percent for research and mechanization, socialized credit; block farms development and scholarships.
“Currently, block farm budget is fully utilized, our scholarships and FMR are also fully utilized. The only part that we hope we can fully utilize is the socialized credit,” Azcona said.
SRA said it also hopes to improve soil laboratories to boost local sugar production, citing the need to approach the sector “a lot more scientifically.”
“…We have been very wasteful in our practices on fertilization and everything. We have to (be) more (scientifically) accurate and try to save every peso that we can so that the farmers will (be) globally competitive,” Azcona said. -Jed Macapagal
