Indon company reports big hybrid rice harvests

MANILA, Philippines - An official of PT Sang Hyang Seri, an Indonesian government agricultural firm, has reported over the weekend that Indonesia has been making big harvests using the hybrid rice seeds variety that it has been importing since 2007 from SL Agritech Corp.

S. Tarigan, senior adviser for the board of directors of PT Sang Hyang Seri, said “every harvest season, our average production per hectare using the SL-8H hybrid seeds of SL Agritech, was 215 cavans which is equivalent to about 10,750 kilos.”

“It is much, much higher compared to the 70 cavans per hectare that we were harvesting before when we were planting our traditional rice variety,” Tarigan said in an interview during a recent hybrid rice festival in Aliaga, Nueva Ecija, where he was among the guests. The affair was graced by the President’s elder sisters, Maria Elena “Balsy” Aquino-Cruz and Pinky Aquino-Abellada.

SL Agritech Corp. has exported since 2007, a total of 2,000 tons of SL-8H hybrid rice seeds variety to Indonesia , as part of the Indonesian government’s efforts to accelerate growth in its rice production.

SL Agritech, in collaboration with PT Sang Hyang Seri, has embarked on a massive seed production in Indonesia allocating  over 1,800-hectare rice farm, and its hectarage to be  increased   every planting season. This is to ensure that there will always  be enough supply of the cereal in the  Indonesian market.

Indonesia has a population of over 230 million and one of the world’s biggest rice consuming countries. It has 12 million hectares of rice lands that can be planted to hybrid rice.

The Philippines now ranks number three after China and India as hybrid rice seeds exporter, according to Henry Lim, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of SL Agritech Corp.

Two other Asian countries – Bangladesh and Vietnam are utilizing the Philippines ‘ hybrid rice technology to meet their growing demand for the cereal.

Nigeria, considered the most populated country in Africa with 140 million people, has likewise shown its interest to adopt the technology when it signed recently an agreement with SL Agritech for the supply of SL-8H super hybrid rice seeds.

“Before finalizing everything and all that, the representatives of these countries conducted intensive field tests on our seed variety and the result showed its potentials, outperforming their traditional rice varieties,” Lim said.

He said Cambodia and Burma have also planted the SL-8H hybrid rice variety of SL Agritech and both countries have experienced very impressive results with this variety.