CEBU CITY, Cebu (August 19, 2026)—Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel Jr. has underscored the vital role of the Philippine Sugar Technologists Association (PhilSuTech) in helping the sugarcane industry turn science and innovation into higher productivity, better incomes, and greater resilience.
Speaking at the 72nd PhilSuTech Annual National Convention here, Tiu Laurel said the association’s expertise will be increasingly important as the industry confronts rising production costs, labor shortages, limited access to technology and financing, climate change, and the spread of the red-striped soft scale insect (RSSI).
“PhilSuTech has always been an important partner of our sugar industry, bringing science, technology, and expertise closer to the people who need them most,” Tiu Laurel said.
He said the industry must move beyond simply managing one crisis after another and instead build a sector that can anticipate problems, adapt quickly, and become more productive and competitive.
That push is already taking shape through initiatives of the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA). SRA Administrator Pablo Luis Azcona said the DA-SRA will release three new high-yielding sugarcane varieties aimed at helping farmers raise productivity and incomes.
The agency is also distributing for free the Beneficial Micro-Organisms (BMO) organic fertilizer to further lower production costs. The SRA also has anti-RSSI biocontrol fungi, and training to help farmers address the pest threat while improving farm management.
Tiu-Laurel mandated all available DA laboratories will augment this effort, as well as more labs will be established at the municipal, mill, and farmer group level thru DA/SRA, to ensure the RSSI Bio-control fungi is readily available.
For Tiu Laurel, such measures capture the kind of practical innovation that the industry needs. He urged stakeholders to view challenges as opportunities for transformation, citing mechanization as an answer to labor shortages, climate-smart agriculture as a response to climate risks, and science and technology as pathways to higher yields.
“The technology we develop must work for the farmer,” he said. “If it cannot help them produce more, reduce costs, save labor, manage risks, or earn better, then we have to ask ourselves, what good is it?”
He stressed that innovation cannot remain inside laboratories, universities, technology centers, or conference halls. It must reach the sugarcane fields and deliver results farmers can see and use.
Tiu Laurel also emphasized the need for a stable and predictable business environment so farmers can invest with confidence that higher productivity will translate into viable markets.
On sugar imports, he reiterated that these are not the administration’s policy objective but a tool for market stabilization when necessary to address temporary supply gaps and protect consumers without undermining domestic producers.
He said the goal is a sugarcane industry that is stronger, more productive, competitive, and self-reliant.
For PhilSuTech, that places its expertise at the center of the industry’s next chapter, helping turn innovation from conference-room talk into field-level results.
