Government urged to allot more for rice production

The government should allocate more money for rice production instead of spending billions of pesos on rice importation, said a group of farmers in Nueva Ecija, as they appealed to President Arroyo to extend its hybrid rice seed subsidy program which expires next year.

"It is lamentable to note that while the government’s money for hybrid rice production is only P1 billion, the amount alloted this year for rice importation reached a staggering P29 billion," Felino Garcia Jr., chairman of the Hybrid Rice Mabini Cluster and Mabini Bagungbuhay Multi-Purpose Cooperative in Mabini, Sto. Domingo, Nueva Ecija, said.

He said all the 61 farmer-members of their group who are implementing a clustering scheme on a 180-hectare ricefield, are very happy that their harvest since they started planting the SL-8H hybrid rice seed variety in 2001, have increased tremendously.

"Sa unang taon na aking sinubukang magtanim ng hybrid rice seeds, nakapag-ani ako ng 180 cavans per hectare, sumunod na taon, 190; third year (2004), 209; pang-apat na taon, 235; at nito ngang last harvest, nakapag-ani ako ng 251 cavans per hectare," he said.

Alfredo "Bong" Bartolome, a 34-year-old nursing instructor at the Wesleyan College Philippines in Cabanatuan City, who manages a 40-hectare SL-8H hybrid rice farm in the town, said his average per hectare harvest when he first tried the said variety was 170 as compared to his former 125 to 130 cavans per hectare certified seeds output.

"Ngayon, ang average ko ay 190 cavans per hectare and I am very happy for this," he said, as he also appealed to the government to extend by four years the hybrid rice seed subsidy program "since the hybrid rice technology has already gained wide acceptance from our farmers nationwide."

A study conducted by scientists of the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), showed that hybrid rice production "is now one of the best options to increase farm productivity and income among the technologies available today."

According to the study, hybrid rice production can increase yield by eight to 14 percent, as more hybrid rice farmers harvest five tons a hectare and above.