The Department of Agriculture (DA) will spend P90 million for setting up clustered hybrid rice farms as part of government’s efforts to expand areas planted with the variety to hike production.
DA Technical Adviser for Hybrid Rice Program Frisco M. Malabanan said the agency will establish the three pilot hybrid rice farm clusters in Regions 3, 6 and 11 where the government will extend subsidies amounting to P30 million.
The interventions would include free hybrid rice seeds, machines for planting to drying, fertilizer, and other required inputs, according to Malabanan.
Each cluster will consist of 100 hectares and would be managed by farmers’ cooperatives to realize the DA’s vision of turning planters into agripreneurs, he added.
“We want to show that they should not be just producers. They should be transformed into agri-preneurs wherein the income [from that clustered farm] would go to every member of the cooperative,” Malabanan told reporters in an interview on Tuesday.
Malabanan said he is proposing to the DA to convert all farms in the country into clusters to achieve economies of scale, and ensure that interventions will enhance efficiency.
“[The DA] chose these regions because these are already top rice producing regions and have areas that are planted with hybrid. Of course, we will start organizing clusters this year, hoping that by 2021, if we are given a higher budget for hybrid rice, we will expand these areas,” he said.
Malabanan disclosed that at present the DA is only able to provide interventions to 320,000 hectares for hybrid rice production.
He added that the DA is targeting to expand areas planted with hybrid rice in the country to 1.5 million hectares by 2024, to prop up the supply of the Filipinos’ staple food.
Citing latest available DA figures, Malabanan said about 577,000 hectares of land in 2018 were planted with hybrid rice.
In an interview in November, Malabanan said the Philippines could stop depending on rice imports if it steps up investments in hybrid rice production.
Data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)showed that the Philippines’s rice imports in 2019 rose to an all-time high of 3.2 million metric tons (MMT), making the country the top buyer of imported rice last year.
In its first monthly forecast report, the USDA revealed that the Philippines has “soared to become the top global importer” of rice as its total purchases last year surpassed China’s 2.4 MMT. China has been the world’s top rice importer since 2013.
Malabanan, senior technical consultant at SL Agritech Corp., said the estimated 7 percent to 10 percent shortfall in local palay output could be wiped out if hybrid rice is planted in 1.5 million hectares. This, he said, should be coupled with support, such as fertilizer and irrigation.