CL gov’ts sign agreement on hybrid rice

TARLAC CITY — Some 50,000 hectares of farmlands in Central Luzon will be planted to hybrid rice varieties in the coming second cropping season.

This materialized with the signing of a memorandum of undertaking (MOU) by the seven provincial governments in the region, the Department of Agriculture (DA), the Philippine Rice Research Center (PhilRice) and three private seed companies.

Dr. Pepito de Dote, DA-Region 3 executive director, said some 30,000 hectares of irrigated ricefields will also be planted with the same hybrid rice varieties that will be provided by SL Agritech Corp., Bayer Crop Science Inc. and Monsanto Phils. Inc. in next year’s dry season.

The second rice cropping season will commence next month, while the third cropping for the dry season will start in March next year.

Last Friday, representatives of the provincial governments of Tarlac, Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Bataan, Bulacan, Zambales and Aurora signed the MOU with the three firms, together with Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo Jr., at the Clark special economic zone in Pampanga.

Lorenzo said the project targets "self-sufficiency in rice through the widespread use of hybrid rice seedlings."

Central Luzon remains the country’s major rice granary.

Tarlac board member Carlito David, chairman of the provincial board’s committee on agriculture who represented Gov. Jose Yap in the signing, said the agreement provides, among other things, the loaning out by the three companies of hybrid rice seedlings to farmers on a "plant now-pay later" scheme with zero interest.

David said the seven provincial governments will act as "guarantors" in behalf of their constituent-farmers who will benefit from the project.

Lorenzo said the use of hybrid rice varieties showed that farm yields increased by more than two-and-a-half times.

He cited the experiences of Mindoro farmers who made a record harvest of 292 cavans of palay per hectare last year, which surpassed that of the People’s Republic of China.

Bartolome Fajardo, Tarlac provincial agriculture chief, said palay harvests in the province have reached a record of 204 cavans per hectare, thanks to hybrid rice varieties.

Traditionally, Fajardo said, farmers only produce as much as 80 cavans per hectare.

Lorenzo said, "There is already a market for hybrid rice produce."