International group airs doubts over RP hybrid rice program

An international non-governmental organization has expressed concern over the possible waste of billions of pesos in taxpayers’ money allocated for the country’s hybrid rice program following reports that the variety has not increased local harvest.

In a paper, the Southeast Asian Regional Institute for Community Empowerment (SEARICE) said some P1.1 billion has been released by the government in 2004 to fund the rice and corn program of the Department of Agriculture (DA). Of the total amount, some P551 million was intended for the hybrid rice commercialization program (HRCP).

SEARICE noted that the budget for the program began at P378 million in 2002, ballooned to P1.2 billion in 2004 and settled at P780 million last year.

A P1.6-billion allocation was reportedly set for this year, while P2.5 billion is being eyed for 2007.

The HRCP was originally patterned after the successful hybrid rice program of China. SEARICE, however, said the hybrid rice varieties used under the local program "had not shown significant and consistent yield advantage over inbred rice varieties."

The NGO said that in a case study of the use of the variety in four provinces in the country, it performed better than traditional varieties in only one province. Hybrid rice performed poorer than the traditional varieties in Isabela and Iloilo which are major rice producing areas, SEARICE disclosed.

The program also earlier came under fire from several major international companies due to the supplier subsidy feature

The program was also recently hit one of the biggest group of rice farmers in Northern Luzon following reports that its implementation favored a specific supplier of hybrid rice seeds.

The Northern Luzon-based West Tanat Multipurpose Cooperative (WTMC) called on the DA to scrap the multi-million peso supplier subsidy.

Farmer-leader and WTMC chair Melany Aquino said the agriculture sector has been urging the DA to look into reports that in some cases the use of hybrid rice seeds "has proven to be less profitable compared with the regular variety since farmers have to spend more for inputs and labor".

Such poor performance has caused a massive dropout rate for farmers participating in the program, Aquino said.

Aquino said the farmer drop-out rate and the reported failure of the hybrid rice variety to improve farm yield "could seriously dampen the farmer sector’s expectation that the program would help improve their plight".