Government extends life of hybrid rice subsidy scheme

The Department of Agriculture (DA) will continue to implement its hybrid rice seed subsidy program, contrary to a recommendation by the World Bank to scrap the program.

GMA-Rice Program director Frisco Malabanan said  scrapping the subsidy is not acceptable. He said lawmakers agree that the technology is the best right now “if we are to ensure productivity and sufficiency in rice production.”

“Based on our strategic calculations, we might try to achieve a 95-percent sufficiency in rice production by 2010. We feel this is greatly possible if we put in place the necessary productivity-enhancing measures,” Malabanan added.

In its agriculture public expenditure review for 2007, the World Bank said that the Philippines should wean its farmers away from the seed subsidy given that the benefits had been introduced to farmers since 2001.

The global financial institution recommended a gradual phaseout of the scheme.

The program has a proposed budget of P500 million for seed procurement next year. The proposal is based on a P1,000 per hectare seed subsidy inclusive of productivity-enhancement mechanisms and location-specific activities.

The assistance from the agriculture department has been decreasing yearly and now remains at P1,000/hectare.  Based on the revised program, the government is targeting up to 700,000 hectares of land to be planted to hybrid rice and this will need more or less P700 million in budgetary allocation to reach a 95-percent production sufficiency by 2010.

In a statement, the DA said total area planted to hybrid rice seeds has reached 300,000 hectares and more areas are being added. Next year, the program is targetting to cover 500,000 hectares.

The DA said the National Government decided to extend the life of the program, which is set to expire this year (2007), due to demands from farmers and local government units for a three-year extension of the program.

A recent study showed that the  contribution of the hybrid rice program since its introduction now amounts to P13.9 billion worth of harvested ricecompared to released subsidies amounting to a cumulative P1.6 billion.