New rice variety suited for Cordillera developed

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – A new rice variety suited to the cool elevated areas in the Cordilleras has been developed.

It is named NSIC Rc104, with the local name Balili after a river in this province. It has been released by the National Seed Industry Council (NSIC, formerly Philippine Seed Board or PSB).

The new variety was jointly developed by Filipino and Japanese rice scientists under the "R&D Project on High Productivity and Rice Technology."

The five-year project, which was started in August 1997 and is scheduled to be completed in July this year, is being implemented by the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

PhilRice, headed by Executive Director Leocadio S. Sebastian, reported on the progress of the project at its just-concluded review by a Japanese mission and its local counterpart.

NSIC Rc104 is one of the 19 promising rice lines developed by the project for irrigated lowlands and cool-elevated areas during the past four and a half years.

It has an average yield of 4.4 tons per hectare and can potentially yield three times higher than the average yield of current varieties planted in the rice terraces.

Thelma Padolina, head of PhilRice’s Plant Breeding and Biotechnology Division, told The STAR the traditional varieties in the Cordillera yield an average of 1.7 t/ha.

Padolina said that NSIC Rc104 feels at home in elevations ranging from 500 to 1,000 meters above sea level.

The new variety matures in 152 days, has 16 productive tillers, and has moderate field resistance to blast, a rice disease.

PhilRice reported that NSIC Rc104 was tested for five seasons in the provinces of Benguet (La Trinidad, Tublay), Kalinga, Apayao, Ifugao (Banaue), and Mt. Province (Bontoc).

Dr. Rodante Tabien of PhilRice, chairman of the Rice Varietal Improvement Group (RVIG), a national body, said that NSIC Rc104 showed high yield potential in Benguet and Ifugao.

In Kalinga and Mt. Province, it exhibited lower yield potential but registered higher yield than the traditional cultivars.

At the varietal trial in the Kanlaon area (Negros Occidental), it showed better field reaction to tungro, a destructive rice disease, than a check rice line.