Victorias Milling sets up biotech lab for sugarcane

A biotechnology laboratory of the Victorias Milling Co. (VICMICO) in Negros Occidental which was completed recently is setting the pace in state-of-the-art and high-tech biological method of improved sugarcane plant genetics and variety improvement in Southeast Asia and the Pacific for enhanced and sustainable productivity.

The Project is being financed by the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) while the executing agency is the Philippine Sugar Research Institute Foundation, Inc. (Philsurin).

This developed following the blessing and inauguration of a multi-million peso biotech laboratory building on the sprawling Vicmico compound.

The first such experimental infrastructure, which was built under the auspices of the private-led Philsurin, it houses modern laboratory equipment, and computer-based gadgets that would accelerate Vicmico’s biotechnological studies and experimentation on the single farm commodity.

Philsurin director general Leon M. Arceo said this is a precedent-setting event in the history of Philippine sugarcane R&D work which is expected to further enhance the world competitiveness and self-sufficiency of the local sugar industry.

Sugar biotechnology can fast-track the hybridization process which involves plant breeding techniques and micro-propagation of different but selected sugarcane varieties from Bangladesh, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Among other main concerns of Philsurin’s thrust to lead in the regional R&D, extension and communication strategists, the institute, in collaboration with state universities like the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) and some private research entities pursues the development of sustainable pest and disease management for sugarcane.

"Ultimately, the bottom-line is our country’s renewed capability to provide efficiency in the production of sugarcane and effectiveness in delivering the latest results of R&D studies to the industry’s various stakeholders to optimize productivity and thus, make the Philippines competitive in the international market," Arceo concludes.