QuestionsQuestions (SRA Department Circular No. 07)
It is the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act No. 10659, also known as the Sugarcane Industry Development Act of 2015.
To promote competitiveness of the sugarcane industry and maximize utilization of sugarcane resources; improve incomes of farmers and farm workers through improved productivity, product diversification, job generation, and increased efficiency of sugar mills.
A consolidation of small sugarcane farms (including agrarian reform beneficiaries’ farms) as one larger farm with a minimum contiguous area of thirty (30) hectares within a two-kilometer maximum distance from each other.
SRA-registered entities that provide technical/professional/marketing/farm services such as plowing, planting, harvesting, hauling/trucking to block farms and other sugarcane farms; they may be operated by block farms, MDDCs, individual farmers, farmers’ associations/federations, or private corporations.
For farms not eligible under the Block Farm Program; specifically farms with aggregate areas beyond five (5) hectares but less than thirty (30) hectares, not members of any SRA-accredited block farm, and managed by an individual farmer, farmers’ association/federation, or a Mill District Development Council. Farms with 5 hectares and below not members of any SRA-registered block farm are also eligible.
Common service facilities (machineries/implements, etc.), irrigation/drainage equipment, grants or start-up funding for inputs (e.g., labor, planting materials, fertilizer, soil rehabilitation/analysis, herbicides/weedicides, tractor services, harvesting/hauling, crop insurance), livelihood and skills training, and other support activities identified by SRA.
No. The IRR states that no grants/start-up funding and socialized credit can be availed by a block farm simultaneously in the same crop year.
When its crops, equipment, facilities, or structures have been significantly damaged by force majeure events, as determined by SRA.
SRA must implement a certification system enabling block farms to access grants/start-up funding, low interest financing, incentives, support from ODA, and market access priority from mills/distilleries for SRA-certified block farms.
Sugar mills, bioethanol distilleries, and other markets of sugarcane shall not refuse sugarcane deliveries from SRA-certified/accredited block farms.
Loans are available only to sugarcane farmers/ service centers duly registered with SRA; lender has a lien on the farmer’s quedan until crop loan is fully paid; farmers cannot be granted another loan until the loan is fully paid (subject to exceptions under force majeure as determined by SRA).
For both Farm Support and Farm Mechanization Programs, the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) manages the socialized credit facility; SRA may tap PHILSUCOR as conduit of LBP for loans to eligible farms under the Farm Support Program.
To encourage and train sugarcane planters/farmers (including block farms and agrarian reform beneficiaries’ farms) to use appropriate mechanization for efficient farming stages. It covers mechanization introduction/expansion, formulation of mechanization plans, and support for service centers emphasizing mechanization services for farms lacking capability to buy/maintain their own equipment.
It requires that service centers emphasize plowing, harrowing, weeding, fertilization, harvesting and other mechanization services to sugarcane farms without capability to purchase/maintain their own machinery, and the service centers referred for this purpose shall be non-block farm operated.
They must register with SRA (as mandated) including sugarcane farmers and associations, mills/mill associations, sugarcane consolidators/muscovado producers, distilleries using molasses/sugar/sugarcane for alcohol, international/domestic sugar traders and CBWs importing sugar for re-export, warehouses of sugar and sellers of bags/sacks for packing sugar, and cane hauling/harvesting service providers.
SRA classifies imported sugar into categories (e.g., quota sugar vs domestic market sugar vs reserved vs world market sugar depending on use/time) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) must require importers/consignees to secure SRA classification prior to release.