Sugarland’s San Carlos City gears up for agro-industrialization

San Carlos City, one of Sugarland’s premier urban centers, is gearing up for agro-industrialization.

Now serving as the city’s road map in pursuing economic and social development is its 20-year (2000-2020) Master Development Plan (MDP).

The MDP envisions this 45,150-hectare city of 110,000 residents to become "an agro-industrial center where people aggressively pursue economic enterprises given its strategic location, live in economic prosperity, peace and harmony amid a clean and green environment."

The master plan calls for a holistic development of both the urban areas and barangays, transforming the latter into secondary growth centers.

San Carlos City is located at the crossroads of four major cities in the Visayas: Bacolod, Cebu, Dumaguete and Iloilo. As such, it can claim the role as hub for development activities in the eastern corridor of Negros Island.

The master plan presents into proper perspective the city’s development priorities, thus serving as guide to both government agencies and private entrepreneurs in their common effort to help the city achieve economic progress.

To attain its dream as an agro-industrial city, its leaders have developed major infrastructure facilities, with the San Carlos City seaport as take-off point. Highest priority was given to harnessing its deepwater harbor that is protected by Refugio Island (Sipaway).

Today, an efficient roll-on roll-off (RORO) service and a fastcraft ferry make travel and transport of agricultural products to the bustling Cebu market fast and easy.

San Carlos City is also the starting point of the Negros Island Translink Highway – the shortest route to Bacolod City and another RORO service and fastcraft ferry to Iloilo city.

The San Carlos-Dumaguete road is the scenic highway that is popular among tourists visiting Negros Oriental.

Currently being constructed is a new commercial airport located at the center of the San Carlos Economic Zone and Industrial Park for domestic and export processing industries.

As these facilities are put in place, the City Agriculture Office has prepared intensive development plans for high-value crops (vegetables) and coffee for the highland plateau: and mango for the coastal plains and the rolling hills that extend up to the shoulders of the Balabag mountain range.

This year, the city government led by Mayor Eugenio Jose V. Lacson and Vice Mayor Gerardo P. Valmayor Jr. launched a 10-year Mango Development Program "to develop, promote and sustain the mango industry and elevate San Carlos as a major mango-producing area."

The mango program was prepared by Los Baños scientist Dr. Rafael Creencia and Joselito Payot of the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD). The two were commissioned by the San Carlos City Development Board (SCCBD) chaired by Dr. Ramon V. Valmayor to study the prospects of commercially producing mango in the city’s barangays.

Records show that 11 percent of San Carlos City’s lands are nonagricultural, 20 percent are forest-covered, and the rest are good for agricultural enterprises. About 8,400 ha with 0-18 percent slope and 12,500 ha with 18-30 percent slope can be used for mango production.

There are at present 646 backyard and commercial mango growers.

The mango development program envisions to expand the mango area in the city at 90 ha per year. At this rate, a multipurpose processing plant for mango is expected to be built soon after the tenth year of program implementation.

Outstanding varieties and selections will be introduced to San Carlos City from the National Mango Research and Development Center (NMRDC) in Guimaras and elsewhere. Locally grown outstanding trees will also be identified, collected, and multiplied in nurseries to be set up in the city.

Mango growers, prospective planters, and housewives will be trained in various ways of production and home-based mango industries.