CARIDAD Pedrano plants her fields with cassava now, not because she wants to, but because she has no choice. The 62-year-old farmer from Bogo City has given up on sugarcane — the crop that sustained her family for years — because the September 30 earthquake has made it financially impossible to continue.
“Okay ra ang pagpananom pero ang ting-harvest sa tubo lisod kaayo… Wa gani tarong income, sig balikbalik ang linog (Planting is okay, but harvesting the sugarcane is very difficult… There’s barely any proper income, and the earthquakes keep happening),” Pedrano said, her voice reflecting the exhaustion felt by countless farmers across northern Cebu.
When costs exceed income
The mathematics of survival have become cruel for sugarcane farmers like Pedrano. Before the 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck, triggered by the newly identified Bogo Bay Fault, she could expect around P16,000 from two trucks of sugarcane. After paying for transportation and labor, she would take home a modest profit.
Now, with roads shattered and bridges collapsed, that same delivery costs more than she earns. Most of her P16,000 income disappears into transportation expenses, leaving her with less than P5,000 — barely enough to justify the months of work cultivating the crop.
“Delivering their crops to the market would cost more than the income earned,” she explained, describing the impossible choice facing farmers: plant sugarcane at a loss, or abandon it entirely.
She chose survival. Rather than let her land lie fallow, Pedrano has shifted to cassava, a crop with lower returns but also lower transportation costs.
Infrastructure collapse severs vital routes
The earthquake’s destruction of transportation infrastructure has effectively severed the economic lifeline connecting Cebu’s sugarcane farmers to their markets in Negros Island Region.
“Affected ang delivery sa Negros kay nangaguba man ang daan, ang agianan sa hauler. Guba ang mga taytayan (Deliveries to Negros were affected because the roads, the routes passed by the hauler, are damaged. The bridges are broken),” Pedrano said.
According to National Disaster Risk and Reduction Management Office data as of Saturday, Oct. 11, a total of 23 roads and bridges across several towns in Cebu remain impassable — six roads and 17 bridges that once carried the region’s agricultural products to market.
Nine bridges are completely impassable, including three in Tabogon, two in Tuburan, two in San Remigio and one each in Daanbantayan and Sogod. Another six bridges in Tabogon, Tuburan and Medellin are only passable to light vehicles — vehicles too small to haul the heavy loads of sugarcane that farmers need to transport to make their operations viable.
At least four roads in Daanbantayan, Pinamungajan, Sibonga and Sogod cannot accommodate any type of vehicle, while one road in Bogo City only allows light vehicles through.
For haulers willing to attempt the journey, the damaged infrastructure means longer routes, higher fuel costs, and increased risk — expenses that get passed directly to farmers who can least afford them.
The final blow: mills shut down
If the infrastructure damage wasn’t devastating enough, the closure of sugar mills in Medellin and Daanbantayan has eliminated even the hope of local processing. Farmers must now transport their sugarcane even farther, to Negros, compounding their losses.
Pedrano noted that her cost estimates were calculated before these mills ceased operations — meaning the situation has only worsened since she made the painful decision to abandon sugarcane farming.
Living in fear
Beyond the economic devastation, sugarcane farmers continue to live with the psychological trauma of the disaster. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology has warned that aftershocks are expected to gradually diminish by December, with an estimated 20 to 30 minor tremors still anticipated.
For Pedrano and her fellow farmers, each tremor is a reminder of what they’ve lost and the uncertainty of what lies ahead. The ground beneath their feet — both literally and economically — remains unstable.
An industry in limbo
Pedrano expressed deep uncertainty about when — or if — she and other farmers will fully recover and resume planting sugarcane. The industry that once provided stable income for families across northern Cebu now seems like a distant memory.
The broader agricultural impact is staggering. The Cebu Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office reported over P17 million in losses affecting 470,000 farm animals across eight municipalities — Bogo City, San Remigio, Tabuelan, Sogod, Borbon, Tabogon, Medellin and Daanbantayan.
According to the latest situational report of the PDRRMO on Oct. 11, Bogo City, San Remigio, Tabuelan, Sogod, Borbon, Tabogon, Medellin and Daanbantayan reported a combined total of 41,195 swine, 13,598 cattle, 3,304 carabaos, 30,410 goats and 381,880 poultry affected. Tabuelan recorded the highest number of total animals at 159,196 heads, followed by Medellin with 100,783 heads, while Bogo City logged 27,287 heads. Damage costs were highest in Bogo City at P6.27 million, followed by San Remegio at P5.93 million, Tabogon at P2.2 million and Daanbantayan at P1.51 million. Medellin reported P560,000 in losses. Other towns such as Borbon, Tabuelan and Sogod also reported damage on livestock, poultry facilities and slaughterhouses. Preliminary assessments from the Provincial Veterinary Office showed that animal shelters, feed storage areas and backyard pens were damaged, leading to animal deaths, injuries and disrupted veterinary operations. Power interruptions and limited access to affected barangays also hampered feed and water supply.
While the Province has activated a three-phase veterinary earthquake response and recovery framework to address livestock losses, no comparable comprehensive support system has been announced specifically for sugarcane farmers whose livelihoods have been destroyed not by direct crop damage, but by the collapse of the infrastructure they depend on to bring their harvest to market.
For now, farmers like Pedrano plant cassava and wait — for roads to be rebuilt, for bridges to be repaired, for mills to reopen, and for the earth to stop shaking. In the meantime, the sugarcane fields of northern Cebu tell a story of abandonment, resilience and an uncertain future. / JJL, DPC