Amid a reported slump in the sugar industry, Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MBCCI) President Frank Carbon suggested local sugar farmers diversify their crops.

“We should encourage block farming, [which] will include bigger farms so [farmers] could afford to mechanize,” he explained. “[They] should also diversify from sugarcane to vegetables and other agricultural ventures.”

The businessman made similar comments earlier this year when discussing the price of sugar, noting, “We have to sustain the sugar industry as the backbone of the Negros economy and we have to take the losses from the sugar industry [and invest in] other alternative sources like the poultry, piggery, rice, and other animal and livelihood projects.”

Carbon also reiterated comments regarding farm laborers switching industries and taking up construction jobs, which pay higher and offer an easier workload.

Earlier this month, following the groundbreaking ceremony for the 25-Megawatt biomass power plant in Manapla, North Negros BioPower, Inc. Chief Operating Officer Arthur Aguilar explained how these types of facilities can complement sugar farming.

“Planters would provide cane to the sugar mills, leaving the cane trash, which we would use,” he said.

Aguilar went on to explain, bagasse, the pulpy residue produced as a result of extracting juice from sugar cane, is used in their operations.

Aside from the Manapla plant and another in San Carlos City, which is projected to be operational by next month, another biomass plant is in the works for La Carlota City./PLL, WDJ