DA orders tests on hybrid rice seeds amid complaints about stunted growth

MANILA, Philippines - Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap wants the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) and the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) to conduct tests on hybrid rice seeds of SL Agritech Corp. to find out why these led to stunted growth and few tillers among plants grown by farmers in Nueva Ecija and other provinces. The order came in the wake of predictions by the Department of Agriculture (DA) that the harvest for the first quarter will be good enough to scuttle fears that there will be less grain due to the big slash in the use of petrochemical-based fertilizers and pesticides. More than 100,000 hectares of land have been devoted to the cultivation of hybrid rice seeds supplied principally by SL Agritech, which maintains its seed production facility in Laguna. Yap's action was in response to the growing fear of farmers that hybrid rice seeds would also increase the cost of inputs they need to realize a higher yield. DA said BPI and PhilRice would use the facilities of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Los Baños, Laguna in conducting the tests. Yap also directed Dr. Frisco Malabanan, national coordinator of the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (GMA)-Rice Program, to continue providing technical assistance to the affected farmers until harvest time to help them attain high yields through the adoption of cultural management practice suited to hybrid seed varieties like those produced by SL Agritech Corp. He assured farmers the DA would extend a package of intervention measures, including cheap credit, to those whose crops were beyond recovery, and would ask SL-Agritech to assist them as well. Yap directed Malabanan and municipal agriculture officers (MAOs) to determine the exact number of farmers whose crops were beyond recovery and were in need of DA and SL Agritech assistance. The directives were issued at a hearing on the hybrid seed issue at the Bureau of Soil and Water Management (BWSM) convention hall attended by over 80 farmers from Cabanatuan City and five Nueva Ecija municipalities---Llanera, Santa Rosa, San Isidro, Gapan and Zaragoza—whose hybrid crops have been affected by the recent cold spell and strong winds. Mayor Lorna Vero of Llanera, regional executive director Redentor Gatus of the DA, provincial agriculturist Serafin Santos and 24 MAOs and technicians also attended the meeting. Yap also told BPI director Joel Rudinas to coordinate with PhilRice on the holding of tests on the hybrid rice seeds of SL Agritech. Agricultural officers from Cabanatuan City and the five towns Nueva Ecija towns noted that the rice plants recovered after they continued applying the cultural management methods recommended by the DA-led monitoring teams deployed to these affected farms. Last month, DA dispatched quick response teams to Nueva Ecija and Isabela to extend aid and provide solutions to the problem. These teams distributed one sack of certified seeds per hectare to those who had destroyed their standing crops for fear they would be hobbled by poor yields. Malabanan said the initial findings of the quick response teams showed the significant role played by the cold stress and strong winds on the stunted growth and fewer tillers of rice plants in Nueva Ecija and Isabela. The debilitating climatic condition started battering the two provinces in December 2008 and the cold spell lasted until the early part of this month. Yap told DA officials to coordinate with municipal agricultural officers and agricultural extension workers to inform farmers that they need to save their hybrid plants and recoup possible production losses. Malabanan also dismissed allegations that SL-Agritech has been enjoying a monopoly on seed subsidies offered to palay farmers as part of the measures to boost yields and farmers’ incomes. He said the program has been subsidizing the hybrid seeds produced not only by SL Agritech but by other private growers as well. Farmers are likewise free to choose which varieties offered in the domestic market they would use. Malabanan said that the other seed growers whose hybrid seeds are similarly covered by the GMA-Rice subsidy seed program—and from which farmer-beneficiaries can choose from—include Bayer Crop Science, BioSeed Research Philippines, HyRice Corp., Syngenta Philippines and even growers’ cooperatives that also produce public sector hybrids. He added that the program gives a subsidy of P1,500 per hectare on all these recommended hybrid rice varieties because these have already passed the NCT trials being done for four seasons under Philippine climatic conditions and were recommended by the National Seed Industry Council of the BPI. Regarding the alleged abnormal growth performance of the SL-8H variety produced by SL Agritech, he said that the teams, composed of staffers from the DA-Regional Field Unit 3, PhilRice, local government units (LGUs) and SL Agritech Corp., simply tagged cold stress and strong winds as the culprit. - GMANews.TV