DUMAGUETE CITY, July 21 -- All sugarcane fields in Negros Oriental, including those not yet affected by the red-striped soft scale insect (RSSI), will undergo chemical spraying following the province's declaration of a state of calamity.
Provincial Agriculture Office Chief Emmanuel Caduyac said the preventive spraying aims to contain the spread of the sap-sucking pest and protect unaffected plantations from infestation.
"We will be coordinating with the local government units down to the barangay level and the farmers to help us in the spraying as the PAO does not have enough manpower to do this," Caduyac told the Philippine News Agency on Tuesday.
"The spraying must be done in all the sugarcane fields to make sure that there are no i...