Hybrid rice farmers earn double

MANILA, Philippines – Cathy Galura, senior vice president for operation of SL Agritech Corp. said yesterday that farmers who are receptive in adopting modern farming technologies and practices can truly increase their harvest and at least double their previous incomes from hybrid rice farming.

She said the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (GMA) hybrid rice program of the Department of Agriculture (DA) has a long list of farmers — over 130,000 of them now all over the country — who can attest to such claims.

“Sa katunayan, most successful hybrid rice farmers in Nueva Ecija, Isabela, Cagayan, Mindoro Occidental and Mindoro Oriental, Camarines Sur, Iloilo, Bicol, Leyte, Zamboanga Subugay and Zamboanga del Sur, Bukidnon, Davao, North and South Cotabato, Sultran Kudarat, Agusan del Sur and in ARMM and in Maguindanao, are using our seed variety,” Galura said.

The government implemented the hybrid rice technology in a bid to cut down rice importation, create millions of jobs in the countryside and improve farmers’ income through higher yields.

She said SL Agritech Corp., which produces the high-yielding SL-8H hybrid rice variety, is sponsoring since 2005 hybrid rice harvest festivals in several regions of the country to promote the benefits of hybrid rice technology.

“Pinagpapatuloy naming and ganitong festival taon-taon dahil naniniwala ang SL Agritech na sa ganitong paraan, (harvest festival), makikita ng ating mga magsasaka ang laki ng inaani sa pamamagitan ng pagtatanim ng hybrid rice variety at sa dahilan ngang ito, makita natin ang pag-unlad ng kanilang pamumuhay,” she said.

Serafin Santos, Nueva Ecija provincial agriculturist, said the province is expected to register an all time production record of hybrid rice this year. He said of the total rice area in the province, some 41,000 hectares were planted to hybrid rice, mostly SL-8II variety and the rest planted to inbred rice variety.

He said Severino Payumo, a farmer from Cabanatuan City, made a record harvest of 345 cavans per hectare in his six-hectare rice farm in Barangay Buliran which was planted to SL=8H hybrid rice variety, followed by Ricardo Buenaventura of Barangay Tabacao in Talavera whose 18-hectare hybrid rice farm produced an average of 266 cavans per hectare also using the same rice variety.

Santos said most rice farmers in Nueva Ecija who planted the SL-8 variety harvested an average of 200 cavans per hectare.