A sugary tale [My World]

@ mirandablue

Sugarcane is a delicate plant, and there was always a need for plenty of fertilizer, irrigation, and a workforce that would work long hard hours of backbreaking labor without complaint---or without choice, as in the case of slaves. Although there was never a slave trade in the Philippines, the sugar industry here has its own unique history of exploitation, excitement, and human drama.

Sugarcane is a massive, bamboo-like grass of genus "Saccharum", tribe "Andropogonaeae", and family "Poaceae". Scientists call it photosynthetically efficient, in that it creates sucrose from sunlight, air, and water better than just about any other plant on earth. The only ones that come close are sugar maple and sugar beet; not coincidentally, those are precisely the two plants that compete directly with cane in the world sugar market.

My mother's uncle acquired a few hectares of land in the southern part of Negros Occidental in the 1950's.  It is a remote area that was infested by communist rebels, and nobody in the family dared to farm the land.   It was only about a decade ago when one of my cousins was crazy enough to invest in sugarcane farming.

Driving to Locotan with my cousins one Saturday in April, I was surprised to see that farm-to-market roads have been developed.  There was electricity, health centers, and according to relatives who live in the area, the communist rebels are either in jail or have returned to mainstream society after the 2007 Amnesty proclamation.

@ mirandablue

Sugarcane farming is never easy, according to my cousin.  In addition to dependency on unpredictable world markets, the sugar farmer is subject to the vagaries of Mother Nature. When it rains too much, trucks can't get out in the fields to get the cane.  To a naive observer like me, a field of blossoming snow-white sugarcane flowers is a sight to behold---the same scene brings a chill to the sugar farmer's spine.  Because those entrancing blossoms mean that the sugar content of the cane is being rapidly depleted, and along with it market value at the mill.  

@ mirandablue

My cousins and I had the crazy idea to walk in the fields at 2 pm when the sun was unforgiving.  I needed the exercise but not heat stroke!  But the view...yes, the view of these rolling hills has a cooling effect even at a 33-degree C temperature.

@ mirandablue

Taken in Locotan, Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental

My contribution to My World-Tuesday

Silay City: Ancestral homes [MWT]

@ mirandablue

When I was in Negros in April, I took an afternoon trip to Silay City to visit my great-grandfather's ancestral home.  But that would be in another post.:p  For now, let me share these snapshots I took while walking the streets of Silay City that rainy afternoon.

Dubbed as the "Paris of Negros", this is where the island's sugar industry started in the 18th century.  The first sugar mill (Horno Economico) was built here in 1846 by a Frenchman who was married to a Filipina.  Haciendas were later established in Silay, and families from the nearby island of Panay also settled here because of the promising sugar industry.

The hacienderos (land owners/sugar planters) grew rich in the sugar boom---the ancestral houses built during the golden age of the sugar industry speak eloquently of the lavish lifestyles.  When the 1980's sugar crisis hit the sugar industry, planters were faced with economic hardships forcing many of the sugar barons to abandon their farms and curtail their spending.  People who worked in the haciendas went through a more difficult life--the province became so impoverished that many people went hungry.   

This is the Maria Ledesma Golez House---bought and restored by a bank (RCBC) in the 1990's.  The house at the background (with red roof) is my great-grandfather's ancestral home.

@ mirandablue

There are about 31 well-preserved ancestral homes in Silay today--some of them have been turned into museums, most of them are still privately-owned.  

Below is the main street in front of the plaza and cathedral.  My aunt used to live behind the light blue building--and if my memory is correct, it's also where El Ideal Bakery was located.  El Ideal is an institution in Silay, baking traditional cakes and pastries in a huge wood-fired oven.  We used to buy snacks in the bakery almost every afternoon when I was about 6 or 7.

If not for the rain, I could have visited more ancestral houses.  Well, maybe next time.

These days, Negros is slowly regaining the vitality it had during the sugar boom in the last century.  But with the 2015 ASEAN Free Trade Agreement hanging over its head, the sugar industry is again facing new challenges on how to compete with cheap imported sugar in the market.

@ mirandablue

Silay City is where the new domestic airport is located.  It is an hour flight from Manila, and about 15 kilometers north of Bacolod City, the provincial capital.

Posted for My World Tuesday

Cluttered [Photo Hunt]

@ mirandablue

Wandered in the sugarcane fields of Negros a couple of weeks ago, and found this heap of burned sugarcane cluttered in the middle of a dirt road.  Sugar is the backbone of Negros' economy---60% of the Philippines' sugar production is on this island.  Aside from smuggled sugar, by 2015, the local sugar industry will compete with imported sugar that will enter the domestic market at zero tariff.  I wonder if the government would be able to effectively address the challenges at protecting the local sugar industry.  Many jobs are dependent on this industry.

@ mirandablue
sugarcane fields in Locotan, Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental

Posted for Photo Hunt