SIRDI opens its headquarters up north

Today, hundreds of cane-farmers and sugar industry stakeholders joined dignitaries and government officials to officially open SIRDI’s news headquarters. The Sugar Industry Research and Development Institute was created in 2009, and since then has had tremendous impact on the industry. The building was financed by the European Union, and will enhance SIRDI’s ability to reach more cane-farmers, with the end goal of increasing production and promoting sustainability in the industry. Today Director of SIRDI Marcos Osorio told News Five that the new building is a dream come true.

Marcos Osorio, Director, SIRDI

Marcos Osorio

“SIRDI is the Sugar Industry Research and Development Institute which was launched in May of 2009. We are five years in operations. Now with our new head offices, we look forward to providing a wider range of services and more outreach to cane farmers. What we have been doing in the first five years, we have engaged seriously in building the capacity of our cane farmers having to do with improving productivity, getting their production more efficient and to be competitive. We have reached several milestones as we had advanced in five years and we look forward to achieving more milestones in moving the industry to more production which the targets are two million tons in the next five to seven years. And we are already heading into that direction through the support of SIRDI, through the support of all cane farmers. Most importantly, the participation of the cane farmers have been very much, I would say a hundred percent and what we see today is a show of that. SIRDI has also engaged in producing cane seeds of high quality, which we had not had in the past. We are in the second cycle of the system and the first stage where we will have quality cane seeds for the replanting program because we have been replanting cane, but we have not seen the yields increasing. So we are confident that high quality cane seeds, and the right varieties for the right types of soil, we should be achieving higher productivity and increasing our industry average.”