P20-M DA-Philrice facilities inaugurated

The research and development (R&D) capabilities of the Department of Agriculture-Philippine Rice Research Institute (DA-PhilRice) have been boosted with the inauguration recently of modern R&D facilities.

Inaugurated were a seed storage facility, a cold tolerance facility, and a transgenic field test area.

The P7.5-million seed storage facility was funded by the Department of Agriculture, the P1.9-million cold tolerance facility by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and the transgenic field test area by Rockefeller Foundation (RF).

Agriculture Secretary Edgardo J. Angara led officials of DA, JICA, RF, and PhilRice in inaugurating the facilities during the 13th National Rice Research and Development (R&D) conference held at the PhilRice central experiment station in Muñoz, Nueva Ecija.

Angara also led the guests and members of the DA-PhilRice family in the groundbreaking for the second building of the National Rice Engineering and Mechanization (NREMC) to be funded by JICA in the amount of P11 million.

The seed storage facility was built to store breeder and foundation seeds of inbred rice varieties and hybrid rice.

It has ordinary and cold storage rooms.

The ordinary storage rooms can accommodate 6,000 bags (40 kilograms per bag) of rice seeds (breeder and foundation). The breeder seeds are distributed to selected members of the National Rice Seed Production Network (Rice SeedNet). The foundation seeds are given to other Rice SeedNet members and accredited seed growers for the production of registered seeds.

The cold storage will be used for breeder and foundation seed buffer stock and the parentals of hybrids. It can store 400 bags (20 kg/bag) of seeds.

The cold tolerance facility is an artificial mini-paddy field with temperature-controlled irrigation system to screen rice for cold tolerance.

The transgenic field test area will showcase how genetically engineered rice will perform in the field compared with the unstransformed ones. It will also be the transition between the biotechnology laboratory and the commercial release of transgenic plants to the farmers.

The NREMC will have a glass-walled room to showcase developed machines and other engineering technologies, a testing and instrumentation area where laboratory tests are to be conducted, a conference room, offices of the staff and visiting scientists, and a drafting room for the computer-aided design experts.