The Sugar Industry Foundation, Inc. (SIFI) Special Programs – Responsible Sourcing from Smallholders (RSS) Program and Regenerative Agriculture for Climate Mitigation (RAC) Program – conducted a meeting with various planters’ associations (PAs) for a collaboration on scale-up productivity improvement initiatives last May 2025.
This collaboration will integrate technology transfer that involves capacity building, establishment of successful show case models, and material and technical support. The strategy of PA collaboration was piloted in 2023 with 4 PAs involving their 18 farmer-members who started with a 1-hectare C.A.S.H. demo farm.
The meeting was participated by 3 partner-mills – Hawaiian-Philippine Company (HPCo), Victorias Milling Company (VMC), and Lopez Sugar Central – alongside 9 PAs and their respective focal persons, namely:
- Asosacion de Hacienderos y Silay Saravia, Inc. (AHSSI) – Joey Ledesma, Director
- Associated Planters of Silay Saravia, Inc. (APSSI) – Raymond Montinola, Chairman
- The Sugar Association, Inc. (TSA) – Aurelio Valderrama, Jr., President
- Victorias Manapla Cadiz Farmers Association, Inc. (VIMACA) – Atty. Dan Pedrosa, General Manager
- Negros del Norte Planters Association, Inc. (NDNPAI) – Vince Acuña, Director
- Association of Negros Agro Producers, Inc. (ANAPI) – Maarty Carmona, President
- Independent Sagay Escalante Planters Association, Inc. (ISEPI) – Dan Buenafe, BOD
- Central Lopez Planters Association, Inc. (CLOPA)
- United Sagay Escalante Planters Association, Inc. (USETPAI)
- Sagay Escalante Planters Association (SAGESPLAS) (engaged, but not present at the meeting)
A brief presentation on the RSS and the RAC Program was conducted, focusing on the C.A.S.H. and regenerative agriculture sub-programs’ protocols and key steps to empower PAs in independently expanding and managing the initiatives. Proposed actions and agreements with the PAs were also set during the meeting.
A general sentiment among PAs present in the meeting was the recognition in challenges, such as manpower and capacity, funding support. A collective eagerness to receive the technology transfer of the RSS C.A.S.H and regenerative agriculture strategy was also observed in the meeting.
