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SWEET SUGAR VS TINY, DEADLY FOE Sugarcane sector still surviving in struggle vs soft-scale swarm, or RSSI infestation
A ROAD slices through sugar country in Negros Occidental, with Mount Kanlaon standing watch in the distance—witness to a mounting threat in the island’s fields. Dubbed the Philippines’ sugar bowl, Negros produces over 60% of the country’s sugar. But now, a pest no bigger than a grain of rice is spreading fast, yellowing stalks and darkening the outlook of a centuries-old industry. STEPHEN GREEN PRICE | DREAMSTIME.COM
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By Ada Pelonia
OMETHING as small as a grain of rice is sapping the strength of the sugarcane sector and the subsistence of thousands of farmers serving as sinews sticking together a centuries-long industry. It was detected first in Pampanga; now it’s in Negros Occidental. Dubbed the country’s sugar bowl, the province accounts for over 60 percent of sugar output. Negros Occidental boasts rolling hectares of sugarcane fields stretched in a patchwork of verdant leaves with towering stalks that rise toward the sun. But around May, some planters who went to bed with fields blooming lush, emerald-green, awoke to a few of their cane stalks’ leaves spitting bright yellow streaks. Unprecedented in Negros Occidental, a minuscule pest characterized by red parallel lines on its dorsal surface has taken up residence on cane leaves, the backbone of sugar production.
‘Rapid spread’
PLANTER David Andrew Sanson said his plantation in Victorias City was among the initial areas hit by the red-striped soft-scale insects (RSSI). Sanson, who also serves as a member of the board of the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA), told the BusinessMirror he noticed the yellowing leaves sometime in May. He said he immediately called the SRA. An investigation confirmed some of his sugarcane
leaves have been infected with the insect, scientifically named as Pulvinaria tenuivalvata. “I’ve only seen this in Pampanga two years ago. So, we were caught off guard when it landed here in Negros. The spread is very fast,” Sanson said. Based on SRA data, the RSSI has affected, as of July 9, some 1,574 Negros Occidental farmers and around 2,876 hectares. The latter area is significantly larger than the 87 hectares recorded on May 22 when the agency first declared an infestation. However, SRA officials have raised a concern that areas affected by the pest might be “higher,” claiming possible underreporting from some planters who began to remedy their respective farms without disclosing the infestation to the agency. The spread of RSSI comes at a time when the combination of efforts from planters and the government has catapulted the country’s raw sugar output in the current crop year to a four-year high. Figures from the SRA showed that the country’s sugar output reached 2.072 million metric tons (MMT) as of June 29, despite earlier concerns that the aftermath of El Niño from 2024 would trickle
BARELY visible to the naked eye, red-striped soft scale insect (RSSI) crawlers—the wingless, newly hatched larval stage— spread stealthily across a sugarcane leaf in Negros Occidental. PHOTO COURTESY OF DA-SRA
Effect on sugarcane
ADULT red-striped soft-scale insects on a sugarcane leaf. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL CROP PROTECTION CENTER, UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES, LOS BAÑOS
into the production of the sweetener this year. Historical data from the SRA showed that the latest raw sugar output is the highest since the 2.14 MMT recorded in crop year 20202021. The insect—first detected in Egypt in 1992—has been reported to cause significant damage to sugarcane, which could slash the sugar content of infested canes by up to 50 percent, based on studies.
MICHELLE S. GUERRERO, researcher at the National Crop Protection Center (NCPC) of the University of the Philippines-Los Baños (UPLB), explained that the RSSI feeds on the sugarcane’s phloem sap, which impairs the plant’s nutrition process. “After feeding, it will cause yellowing and drying. They will start on the lower end of sugarcane leaves, and once depleted, they’ll move upwards. That’s their habit,” Guerrero told the BusinessMirror. She said that the pest also excretes honeydew, which attracts other insects, and spurs the growth of sooty mold, evident through a black appearance that coats the leaves. “When the leaves of the sugarcane are covered with sooty mold, it will hinder the photosynthetic ability of the sugarcane,” Guerrero explained. While devoid of wings, the eggs from an adult female RSSI would hatch into crawlers, which
have “high chances of dispersal,” the NCPC researcher noted. “Since these are extremely small [about 1.5 millimeters to 3 mm], they can spread if you didn’t know that what you planted has crawlers in them [...] when the plants are close together, it can transfer from one leaf to another,” she said. Guerrero, together with other researchers from the NCPC and the SRA, pioneered a study on the characterization of RSSI in 2023 when it emerged as a sugarcane pest in Luzon a year prior. The pest was initially detected in Bacolor, Pampanga, with its emergence being a “novel occurrence” in the Philippines, according to the researchers. “Current observations show that there is no resistant sugarcane variety against the pest yet,” they said. Citing earlier studies, the researchers mentioned the “decrease in weight of stalks of infested plants, while glucose and sucrose content were reduced drastically.” They noted, however, that the infestation has not been thoroughly studied in the Philippines.
‘Alarming’ pest
INDUSTRY groups have also sounded the alarm over the spread of RSSI. United Sugar Producers Federation (Unifed) President Manuel R. Lamata said the infestation sweeping across Negros Occidental poses a threat that could potentially “kill” the industry. “Once you get hit by RSSI, your canes will not mature. It will not produce sugar because the leaves are being eaten [as] the nutrients of sugarcane come from the leaves and the roots,” Lamata told the BusinessMirror.
“I’m very alarmed because this will kill the industry. It’s no joke because this is one disease that, if unchecked and uncured, would kill [sugarcane].” Lamata explained that farmers would have to replant if the canes droop and shrivel as an aftermath of RSSI infestation, as sugarcane is considered a one-year crop. “[If the pest] kills the plant now, you have to plant again and harvest the next year. Imagine if we don’t have sugar for one year, we would just be importing,” Lamata said. He then called on planters to monitor their respective fields for the potential presence of the pest since this could affect other farms if infestation remains unchecked. National Federation of Sugarcane Planters (NFSP) President Enrique D. Rojas also urged his fellow planters to remain vigilant amid the “alarming” spread of RSSI. Rojas also seeks government measures to curb the infestation. “In terms of its rapid spread and the fact that there is no scientifically proven pesticide against it yet, the RSSI infestation is alarming,” Rojas told the BusinessMirror. “We will feel more comfortable if SRA can come up with a proven treatment that can effectively halt the spread of the infestation,” he added.
Interventions
THE SRA has rolled out several interventions as part of efforts to prevent the pest from gaining a foothold regionwide and limit the devastation that RSSI could pose to the sugarcane industry. For one, the agency has sought an emergency use permit from the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority Continued on A2
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 57.1240 n JAPAN 0.3846 n UK 76.6547 n HK 7.2785 n CHINA 7.9550 n SINGAPORE 44.4406 n AUSTRALIA 37.0392 n EU 66.2581 n KOREA 0.0410 n SAUDI ARABIA 15.2294 Source: BSP (July 18, 2025)