SL Agritech launches new farm program

MANILA, Philippines –  SL Agritech Corp., the country’s top producer of hybrid rice seeds has launched a new farm program called “Kabuhayan sa Palayan,” which aims to help the farmers increase their production and income and boost the government’s effort to attain self-sufficiency of the cereal.

“Kabuhayan sa Palayan is our social corporate responsibility to utilize the latest farming technology with the end in view of increasing the farmers’ production and income and help in our country’s effort to achieve rice self-sufficiency,” said Henry Lim, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of SL Agritech.

Kabuhayan sa Palayan’s priority target areas are 100-hectare compact and irrigated rice farms which are low-yielding and areas where the  hybrid rice technology is not yet adapted. The target beneficiaries are the farmers, irrigators’ associations, cooperatives and rice farm clusters.

Lim said his firm’s initial project will be in Pangasinan, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac, Palawan, Occidental and Oriental Mindoro, Camarines Sur, Albay, Negros Occidental, Eastern Samar, Bukidnon, Zamboanga de Norte and Bohol.

He explained that the scheme is a   “Plant Now Pay Later Plan,” which means SL Agritech will supply the farmers the hybrid palay seeds, provide the technological know-how and pay for the palay seeds only during harvest time.

“Sa oras lamang ng anihan nila kami babayaran and we are sure this mode or manner of payment will be a big help for them, unlike before when their problem is money to buy the palay seeds, fertilizers, etc.,” Lim said, adding that the duration of the program will be during the wet and dry cropping seasons from period 2010 to 2011.

The program’s cooperating agencies (Government Sector) are the Department of Agriculture-Regional Field Units (DA-RFUs) Local Government Units (LGUs) and the Philippine Rice Research Institute and the private sector, SL Agritech Corp. and fertilizer companies.

Lim at the same time expressed optimism that “in the foreseeable future, our country will become self-sufficient in rice as more and more 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 production when they plant the traditional inbred seeds which is only about 75 to 80 cavans per hectare,” 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.