Neg. Occ. small planters bewail high cost of fertilizers
BACOLOD CITY -- The small planters associations in Negros Occidental will hold a protest action on July 19, Saturday, at the Bacolod City Public Plaza to ask Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to address the drastic increases in the price of fertilizers.
The United Farmers Association of Nergros – South, Inc. (Unifarms), Cauayan Sugarcane Planters Association, Inc., and Solid Planters Diversity Association, Inc. have called on President Gloria Arroyo to intervene before things get out of hand.
Hinigaran Vice Mayor Jose Nadie Arceo, President of Unifarms, said the exorbitant prices of fertilizers and other chemical-based farm inputs is now an alarming crisis in the sugar industry.
"We, the small and medium sugar planters in Negros Occidental believe that if the government does not act at once this problem will result to serious repercussions in the future of the industry," Arceo said.
With fertilizer prices beyond the affordable rate not only sugarcane farmers but also rice and corn production will soon see a crisis; not to mention the energy and oil crisis the country is experiencing now.
"We reiterate our call to President Arroyo to immediately intervene before things get out of hand. We urge Malacañang and concerned government agencies to conduct a probe on the possibility that a cartel is existing behind the soaring cost of fertilizer. It is reasonably a distinct possibility in the fact of facts that the prices appear to be increasing in spurts and seems unstoppable," Arceo said.
They also pushed for the creation of a special task force that will handle the issue and recommended long term solutions to mitigate this disturbing predicament of the frontliners in the sugar industry.
The group pointed out that at the price of "B" sugar now, which is below P1,100 per l kilogram, the small farmers, mostly, Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) beneficiaries who comprise 75% of the sugar industry will not survive and will die the natural death unless the government will do something to help them, average production cost of the small farmers is estimated to be at P1,100/l kg based on the production of 65 tons/hectare average l kg/tc is 1.75.
Arceo said that the government is thankful to the industry that despite the price increase of all commodities, the price of sugar remains stable and very low. "But what about the producers, the farm workers and their families?" he asked.