PhilRice to expand hybrid seed production

The Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) in Murcia, Negros will widen its hybrid rice seed production area in support of the Department of Agriculture’s Food Staple Sufficiency Program (FSSP). According to PhilRice Muñoz (Nueva Ecija) branch manager Engineer Leo C. Javier, the Department is targeting 1,000 hectares to be planted in Visayas and Mindanao beginning in the last quarter of 2012 until 2013 to supplement the government’s rice sufficiency program. “These main islands are tapped to produce the seeds of newly commercialized hybrid rice varieties, Mestiso 19 and Mestiso 20, which will be planted in 50,000-hectare rice farms across the country in 2013,” he said. PhilRice Muñoz is planning to devote its 61-hectare seed production area to hybrid rice while inbred seed production may be farmed out to receptive farmer-enterprenuers. “Through [the] contract out, the landowner will produce the required seeds and shoulder the production and harvest expenses. PhilRice will dry, clean, and bag the seeds, and pay the landowner with the commercial palay price,” Javier said. Expansion could also be done through renting rice farms, with PhilRice covering production expenses and labor. PhilRice Muñoz also contracted eight hectares in nearby farms to produce high-quality seeds of newly-released and climate-change ready rice varieties. Javier said the region will buy the seeds to be distributed to seed growers and farmers in irrigated and adverse environments. Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala has requested Agriculture Region VI to provide PhilRice Negros with a 38-horsepower tractor and a rice combine harvester after allocating P38 million for the concreting of a farm-to-market road that connects the station to Bacolod City. PhilRice is a government-owned and controlled corporation devoted to developing high-yielding and cost-reducing technologies. The Department is expecting rice production to hit 17.8 million MT rice in 2012, after the government trimmed down the target output from 18.4 million MT. First semester rice output was 4.5 percent higher, to 7.89 million MT, from last year's output in the same period. — BM, GMA News