TO boost Bicol’s contribution to national rice production, the Department of Agriculture (DA) is carrying out P6-million organic upland rice farming in the region, which capitalizes on the native varieties’ drought tolerance.

Nicomedes Eleazar, director of the DA-Bureau of Agricultural Research, said that Bicol’s upland rice is being developed for its market potential, noting that some traditional upland rice strains have been reported to “outperform” some modern rice varieties.

“Their advantage is in higher grain production and drought tolerance which has become a critical trait amid the prevailing climate change threats,” Eleazar said in a statement.

Upland rice varieties generally have an average yield of only one to two metric tons (MT) per hectare, but these selected Bicol varieties can exceed such yield average.

The official said they have identified that a total upland area of 63,699 hectares in Bicol were once completely rice productive in the 1960s. This is based on a report of the International Rice Research Institute.

While the productive upland rice area dropped to 53,480 hectares in the 1970s, all of these lands can be revived now that a climate change program is crucial, he added.

“Our development of upland rice is very timely as these varieties have the potential to withstand higher temperature and less water supply which is what we really need amid the threatening climate change,” Eleazar said.

The project, which is aimed to boost Bicol’s contribution to national rice production, is focused on popularizing upland organic farming specifically in the river basin towns of Baao and Nabua in Camarines Sur.

Profitability target is 20 percent above prevailing income in the covered uplands.

Allocated BAR funding is P4.998 million while a separate counterpart funding of P1 million will be provided by partners. The program covers 2.5 years.

An earlier study indicated that some of Bicol’s upland rice varieties perform better than DA’s check varieties (highest yielding comparative strains).

“Some upland rice cultivars in Bicol such as Palawan, Gayang-gang white, Kinarabao, and Magdami were found to have higher grain yield than PSB Rc9 (check variety),” according to the Bicolandia Greenfields Devt Organization Inc (Bigfis), project partner.

The tallest upland rice strain evaluated was Sinalapi with 113 centimeter (cm) height. The rice plant with the longest panicle was recorded with Palawan white with 73.88 cm. Other notable rice cultivars are Bursege, Bolibod Red, and Gios which have the highest number of productive tillers—15.53, 12.93, and 12.87 tillers.

“The upland rice strain with the heaviest 100-seed weight was recorded with Kabring with 3.8 grams. This was followed by Kinalansing with 3.6 grams. Palawan Red had the highest number of grains per panicle followed by Gayang-gang, Palawan white, and Magdami with 226, 221, and 188 grains per panicle,” said Bigfis.

Meanwhile, Eleazar stressed the project’s importance, noting that Bicol once accounted for 20 percent of Philippine rice output.

Upland rice production in Bicol slowly decreased due to farmers’ shift to the planting of other crops like corn and legumes in expectation of higher income.

DA reported that as of 2008, upland rice in Bicol was planted on a total of 3,281 hectares, just a fifth of the upland rice area in the 1960s.

“The past several years had manifested the cruel unpredictable weather condition in the Bicol region where significant losses in the agricultural sector were recorded,” Eleazar said, quoting reports from Bigfis.

Bicol has been among the Philippine provinces adversely affected by destructive typhoons and weather disturbances that were somehow attributable to climate change.

Continuous rains in 2008 caused damage on 26,640 hectares out of the 126,961 hectares of standing crop in the dry season cropping. That damage affected 40,426 farmers. They lost P381.377 million in damaged crop.