SL Agritech head cites role of agri journalists

Henry Lim Bon Liong, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of SL Agritech Corp., cited the Philippine Agricultural Journalists (PAJ) for its  continued participation in the dissemination of vital agricultural information “that would greatly result in uplifting the lives of our people especially those in the countryside.”

Lim said he accepted without hesitation the invitation of the PAJ  to be its keynote speaker “because I  felt it was my way of recognizing   the contribution of your organization in the promotion of food production in particular and agricultural development in general.”

The occasion marked the 31st anniversary of PAJ held at the Philippine Coconut Authority auditorium in Quezon City. Former Food Minister Jesus Tanchanco Sr., one of the supporters of PAJ since its inception in 1976, and Roman Floresca, former PAJ president and agriculture editor of The Philippine STAR, delivered inspirational talks.

“While we are all aware of the important role played by technology in our massive food production efforts, there is the apparent need for all of us to keep abreast with the various technological approaches and to continuously be in search of new and better systems towards increased productivity,” Lim said.

Lim, whose firm produces the well-known SL-8H hybrid rice seeds variety, said farmers can increase their yields many times if they use hybrid seeds and apply the latest farming technology. According to Lim, the area planted to rice is only 375,000 hectares which is less than 10 percent of about 3.9 million hectares planted to rice all over the country.

“If we could  raise this to at least one-half of the 1.2 million hectares of irrigated land, then our farmers will have the incentive to shift to hybrid rice and also then can the Philippines can be self-sufficient in the cereal,” he said.