More gov’t support for hybrid rice urged

When the Arroyo administration embarked on the production of hybrid rice in 2001, the goal was to reduce the country’s increasing importation of the cereal and save on precious dollars, generate jobs in the countryside, improve farmers’ income through higher yields and attain self-sufficiency in rice.

The question is: Has the program made an impact in the Philippine economy since its implementation in 2001?

“Sad to say, malayo tayo sa ating inaasa-han because the government has not decidedly or aggressively financed the program. We are spending almost P25 billion a year in rice importation but just a pittance or a drop in the bucket, so to speak, is allocated for rice production,” said former Ifugao Rep. Gualberto B. Lumauig who is now engaged in hybrid rice farming.

Lumauig said that “if the government allocates at least P5 billion for hybrid rice production, we could expect a bumper harvest of palay in the coming years and the country’s goal of attaining rice self-sufficiency would be realized.”

Dr. Noel G. Mamicpic, vice president for research and development of SL Agritech Corp., the country’s top producer of the SL-8H hybrid rice seeds, said that while only about 10 percent of the country’s farmers are engaged in hybrid rice farming, “we can see that there is a positive growth in our rice production in the last four years.”

He said the area planted to hybrid rice is only about 375,000 hectares which is less than 10 percent of about 3.9 million hectares of the country’s total rice farms.

“If we raise this to at least one-half of the 1.2 million hectares of irrigated land or 600,000 hectares, our farmers would be encouraged to shift to hybrid rice and the Philippines can be self-sufficient in the cereal,” Mamicpic said.

A study conducted by the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) showed that farmers using certified seeds earned only P15,000 per hectare per crop season which doubled to P30,000 per hectare per crop with the use of hybrid rice technology.

The study also showed that hybrid rice can increase yield by eight to 14 percent, as more hybrid rice farmers harvest five tons a hectare, a production which is higher than that of inbred rice farmers.

“Hybrid rice production is now one of the best options to increase farm production and income among the technologies available today,” the PhilRice study said.