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Negros Island, the fourth
biggest island in the Philippine archipelago, lies near the
central part of the country. Negros Occidental, in the
western side of the island, is one of the 6 provinces
comprising Region VI, Western Visayas. It has a total land
area of nearly 8 thousand square kilometers and a coastline
stretching 800 kilometers. The province is composed of 13
cities and 19 municipalities with Bacolod City as its
capital.
Parts of the province are
largely level plains and gently rolling slopes separated
from its neighboring province of Negros Oriental by mountain
ranges. The most famous of these mountain ranges is Mount
Kanlaon. 541 thousand hectares of Negros Occidental’s land
area are alienable and disposable. The rest are forestlands.
98% of the
alienable and disposable lands are agricultural areas,
including built-up spaces. The remaining 2% are fishponds.
The province is blessed with generally pleasant climate with
an average temperature of 26 degrees Celsius. It has two
pronounced seasons: dry season from December to May and
rainy season from June to November.
The Negrenses, as the
people of the province are called, are regarded as
affectionate, fun loving, highly educated, skilled, and
entrepreneurial individuals. The economy of the province is
principally driven by agriculture. Land is where the wealth
of the province originated and continues to emanate. Of the
agricultural areas, sugarcane occupied 161 thousand
hectares, followed by rice with 113 thousand hectares, and
the remaining spaces devoted to corn, coconut, fruit and
vegetable crops, including built-up spaces.
Over 143 thousand hectares
of agricultural lands have been distributed to more than 104
thousand farmer-beneficiaries as of August 2004 under the
land reform program. Sugarcane has been cultivated in the
province since the mid 18th hundreds and has been the key
factor in bringing material growth to Negros Occidental.
Today, it still dominates
the economy and the landscape of the province.
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