SL Agritech confident it remains a force in hybrid rice sector

MANILA, Philippines - SL Agritech Corp., the country’s leading hybrid rice seeds producer, said “despite the efforts of some of our detractors to pull us down, our firm will remain and will continue to be a force in the industry.”

“Our strength comes from our product excellence and our paramount goal is to be an instrument in improving the lives of our farmers. Though our market reach has gone beyond Philippine borders, yet our foremost objective is to be of service to our country and fellow Filipino farmers,” said Henry Lim, SL Agritech chairman and chief executive officer (CEO).

“We enjoy market leadership in hybrid seeds production because our seeds variety, notably the SL-8H, is preferred by most of our farmers due to its high-yielding performance,” Lim said.

According to Lim, no less than 50 hybrid rice farmers from all over the country – Nueva Ecija, Ilocos Norte, Cagayan, Isabela, Pangasinan, Tarlac, Zamboanga del Sur, North Cotabato, Camarines Sur, and Oriental and Occidental Mindoro, “have scored unprecedented records in rice production never before achieved by any farmer planting the traditional inbred rice variety.”

He said their average production per hectare using the SL-8H hybrid rice seeds in 250 cavans. Highest was 345.6 cavans per hectare produced Severino Payumo, a 70-year-old farmer from Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija. The average yield of farmers planting the traditional inbred rice variety is only about 70 to 80 cavans per hectare.

Lim at the same time expressed optimism that “in the foreseeable future, our country will become self-sufficient in rice as more and more of our farmers are planting the high-yielding hybrid rice variety.”

“It has been proven that farmers planting hybrid seeds will not only double or triple their harvest but will also dramatically increase their income, compared to their harvest but will also dramatically increase their income, compared to their production when they plant the traditional inbred seeds variety,” he said, as he urged the massive propagation of hybrid rice as part of the government’s effort to achieve self-sufficiency of the cereal.

Encouraged by the benefits of hybrid rice technology, seven Asian countries are already adopting the high-yielding SL Agritech’s SL-8H hybrid seeds technology. They are Indonesia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Myanmar (formerly Burma), Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia and Vietnam, where the Philippines imports billions of pesos worth of rice every year. Nigeria, considered the most populated country in Africa is also using the firm’s hybrid rice technology.