DA to spend P500M over 2 years in support of hybrid rice farming

The Department of Agriculture (DA) will allocate P500 million in the form of loans and farm input over a two-year span to help out hybrid rice farmers. According to Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala at the first Hybrid Rice Congress, which was held in Muñoz, Nueva Ecija last week, P200 million will be spent this year and P300 million in 2014. Alcala said that in 2012, the country was able to produce a record harvest of 18 million metric tons (MT) of rice without having to subsidize hybrid seeds. However, he added, the hybrid rice sector is important to the government's goal of achieving self-sufficiency in rice this year by producing 20 million MT of the crop. The government is encouraging the use of hybrid rice seeds to increase the Philippines’ average rice yield to as much as 10 MT per hectare from the current 3.5 MT per hectare in the long term. Agriculture Assistant Secretary and National Rice Program Coordinator Dante Delima earlier said that the land area devoted to the cultivation of hybrid rice varieties will be expanded from 146,000 hectares in 2012 to 281,397 hectares this year and 350,000 hectares in 2014. Alcala also said that while the government will not resume providing seed subsidies for hybrid rice farmers, it plans to strengthen state institutions such as the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) by promoting the private and public hybrids it develops through the establishment of more technology-demonstration farms in rice-producing provinces. Alcala also urged encouraged hybrid rice farmers to avail of the loans that are open to them, such as production loans of up to P50,000 per hectare under the expanded P400-million Sikat-Saka credit program implemented jointly by the DA and Land Bank of the Philippines. — BM, GMA News