Gov”t to increase use of hybrid rice seeds

MANILA, Philippines - The government intends to increase the use of hybrid rice seeds under the Food Staples Sufficiency Program (FSSP), to increase rice yield per hectare and boost farmers’ incomes.

The government and private hybrid rice seed producers thus will hold the 1st National Hybrid Rice Congress next month to identify policies that can be instituted to popularize the use of hybrid rice varieties.

The Department of Agriculture, through the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), and private rice companies will hold the first hybrid rice congress at the PhilRice research center in Munoz, Nueva Ecija from April 3 to 5.

 The congress, with the theme, “Bigas na Sapat, Binhing Hybrid ang Kabalikat,” will identify the position of the hybrid rice industry in the government’s food staples sufficiency goal.

During the recently-held consultation meeting in preparation for the congress, PhilRice deputy executive director for development Eduardo Quilang said the government would expand the use of hybrid varieties in the coming years.

In the past, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala had favored the used hybrid rice.

Quilang noted that the use of hybrid rice seeds could increase yield by 15 percent. A yield of 12 tons per hectare is value as achievable compared to only around four tons per hectare when inbred variety is used.

“It’s one of the priorities because of our rice self-sufficiency targets. We have a lot of interventions and the use of hybrid rice seeds is one of these,” said Quilang.

There are currently around 40,000 hectares of planting areas for hybrid seeds. These would be increased this year to give farmers an alternative to commercial hybrid rice seeds.