That’s really a trick headline you just read. But it’s true we are exporting. Not rice for the table but rice seeds for planting. Since 2007, the domestic company SL Agritech Corp. has been exporting hybrid rice seeds to some of our neighboring countries in Southeast.
The Philippines is the world’s third biggest exporter of hybrid rice seeds— after China and India.
One of the criticisms against the DA’s Food Staples Self-Sufficiency Roadmap (FSSR) is that it has downplayed the use of hybrid rice varieties.
The DA’s goal now is to expand the hybrid rice coverage to 500,000-700,000 hectares by 2013. At present only 375,000 hectares are planted to hybrid rice varieties.
Why doesn’t Secretary local decide to have more hectares planted to hybrids?
Executive Director Ronilo A. Beronio of the government’s Philippine Rice Research Institute says the hybrid palay varieties his agency has developed together with the International Rice Research Institute can produce as much as 10-12 metric tons per hectare or almost thrice the 3.8 metric tons per hectare national yield average.
Philippine National Rice Program director Frisco G. Malabanan also has also said that hybrid rice seeds yield 15 percent more than the 4 to 5 metric tons per hectare produced by certified seeds.
In China, the latest hybrid rice strain developed called “super hybrid rice” is expected to yield 13.5 metric tons of rice per hectare.
The Chinese scientist Yuan Longping, the “father of hybrid rice,” who leads the team developing these new hybrid varieties is a Magsaysay Awardee precisely for his work.
He and other scientists are urging the Philippines to embrace the wonders of hybrid rice more enthusiastically.
