High cost of hybrid rice offset by yield — savant

09/09/2008

The higher cost of producing hybrid rice is offset by the higher yields and income the farmers get, according toe Dr. Frisco Malabanan, director of the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (GMA) rice program of the Department of Agriculture (DA).

“The use of hybrid seeds has tremendously increased our palay production by 1.47 metric tons per hectare, with per hectare yields hitting 6.01 MT against the 5 MT average produce by farmers using the inbred rice variety,” he said.

The DA official said the hybrid rice varieties have recorded a yield advantage of 33 percent more than those of inbred certified seeds. This yield advantage, he said, contributed to a sustained increase in the national palay production of the country.

He said in many provinces in the country, especially in Nueva Ecija, more and more farmers are now planting high-yielding hybrid rice seed variety and using the latest farming technology.

Henry Lim, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of SL Agretech Corp., the country’s top producer of hybrid rice seeds, said “The rice harvests are bigger now from the farmers in Nueva Ecija who have been planting the hybrid seed variety, compared to the past when they were planting the traditional or inbred rice variety and were not working as a group.”

He said the Bagong Buhay Multi-Purpose Cooperative in Barangay Mabini in Sto. Domingo, Nueva Ecija, a cluster of 200 hectares, is one example where working together as a group or common sharing a resources, will have tremendous effect to increase production.

Back to top

For comments about this website:Webmaster@tribune.net.ph
The Daily Tribune © 2006