Hybrid rice program off to a good start

LOS BANOS, Laguna – The government’s Hybrid Rice Commercialization Program (HRCP) is off to a good start.

Hybrid rice planted in 21,000 hectares in at least 56 provinces in the country is now being harvested or ready for harvest, Presidential Adviser on Job Creation Luis Lorenzo Jr. told The STAR here last Friday.

The HRCP prime mover was here as keynote speaker at the program marking the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Los Baños-based Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD).

"Very exciting" was how Lorenzo described the maiden cropping season of the hybrid rice program.

More than half of the 21,000 ha (11,000 ha) planted to hybrid rice in the ongoing cropping season are in Mindanao, he said. The rest are scattered in provinces of Luzon and the Visayas.

The initial yields were encouraging, Lorenzo said. For instance, a high of 8.5 tons per hectare was harvested in the Ilocos.

An average of six tons per hectares has been recorded, which is more than the average five tons per hectares of inbred (non-hybrid) varieties.

Earlier in his speech at the PCARRD program, Lorenzo said that the HRCP is projected to cover 70,000 in the dry (next) season late this year.

Next year, two croppings will cover about 200,000 ha. The area is projected to reach 300,000 ha by 2004.

The Hybrid Rice Commercialization Program is the flagship program of the Arroyo administration’s Unlad Ani," chartered to boost national efforts to make the country self-sufficient in rice at the soonest possible time.

Coordinator for the implementation of the HRCP is the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), which was placed under the Office of the President last March from the Department of Agriculture.

President Arroyo named Lorenzo chairman of the PhilRice board of trustees, the institute’s policymaking body.

The centerpiece of the HRCP is the "Mestizo" variety (PSB Rc72H), a Philippine hybrid named suited to irrigated lowlands have been named after rivers and those that thrive in the uplands after mountains.

To help ensure the success of the program, PhilRice and the National Food Authority (NFA) had earlier agreed that "Mestizo would be given priority in NFA’s palay procurement program.

Signatories to the memorandum of agreement were Lorenzo, PhilRice executive director Dr. Leocadio S. Sebastian, and then NFA administrator Anthony Abad.

The MOA also covers the nationwide conduct of technical briefings for farmers and marketing of PSB Rc72H and other hybrids, to promote and ensure the utilization and practice of the hybrid rice technology in targeted areas for 2002 to 2004.

PhilRice will provide the NFA regional and provincial offices with masterlists of farmers participating in the NRCP through the provincial action teams being coordinated by the institute.

It will also coordinate with the NFA the expected volume of "Mestizo" palay to be harvested and procured within each of the participating provinces.

For its part, NFA will give preference in its palay procurement program to "Mestizo" and other hybrids identified by PhilRice and, where possible, procure hybrid rice produced within the participating provinces.

NFA will also classify "Mestizo" hybrid palay as palay Grade 1 provided that the variety meets NFA quality standards.