With 2020 Out & Agriculture Secretary William Dar In, We Can Go After Self-Sufficiency In Rice In 2021!

The Department of Agriculture, DA, has just issued a press release, “Phl Agri Sector’s Resilience Paves Way To All-Time Palay Yield Of 19.44 MMT In 2020.”

That is despite the loss of about 419,500 metric tons of palay to a series of typhoons in this growing season. Above, Mr Dar says:

We owe this year’s all-time palay production (record) to the resilience and hard work of our country’s farmers, and strong support of our local government units and the private sector, who altogether contributed to attaining such remarkable feat.

Not content, I look at the achievement as not simply an astounding record of harvests but as a challenge to up the ante and:

Let’s go after rice self-sufficiency for PH within 2021!

The same way we achieved 19.44 MMT of palay this year, I can see what I will call here the Rice Self-Sufficiency Squad – with the
DA’s enlightened leadership;
farmers’ hard work;
local government units’ strong support;
private sector’s robust assistance  –
PH will produce enough rice for Filipinos in the next 365 days!

When it comes to the rice itself, Oryza sativa, I can imagine that with funds and facilitation, the DA will encourage farmers to plant their own choice varieties, others to:

(1) Plant More Green Super Rice.

Green Super Rice, GSR, can yield up to 230 cavans per hectare[1] (IRRI.org), which can translate into US$400 or P20,000. In another report, the yield is 11 tons per hectare, 2.75 times the average of 4 tons – and it tastes good, according to the farmers of Leyte[2] (Paula Bianca Ferrer, 09 February 2016, “Growing hope with Green Super Rice,” IRRI.org). Some 5 years ago, I already called GSR “The Greener Green Revolution[3]” (22 June 2015, Creative Thinkering).

(2) Plant More Hybrid Rice.

Last year, it was observed that “Only A Minority Of Farmers Prefer Hybrid Rice Seed[4]” (Reicelene Joy N Ignacio, 28 January 2019, BusinessWorld.com). That was despite the knowledge that hybrid rice varieties gave higher yields. The given reason for the hesitance in planting hybrid rice was the cost of the seeds – farmers have to buy new hybrid rice seeds every time they plant, because the hybrid vigor is lost after the first cropping, no more high yields.

To attract more rice hybrid planters, in January 2020, SL Agritech offered a P1,200 hybrid rice seed aid to farmers in Bulacan, Ilocos, and Tarlac (ANN, 14 January 2020, “Farmers in big rice producing provinces to receive P1,200 per 20-kilo hybrid rice seed discount this rainy season[5],” Business Diary PH). The potential difference in yield is 1 MT or 20 cavans per hectare compared to inbred rice.

SL Agritech Chair Henry Lim Bon Liong says:

They say hybrid rice is not good for the wet season. But farmers that continue to use SL-8 during the wet season harvest higher than inbred… (SL-8) will yield 120 to 150, so that’s still better than 60 to 80 cavans.

From hybrid rice, that’s a revelation!@517

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[1]http://news.irri.org/2019/04/green-super-rice-varieties-are-boosting.html

[2]https://ricetoday.irri.org/growing-hope-with-green-super-rice/

[3]https://creativethinkering.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-greener-green-revolution.html

[4]https://www.bworldonline.com/only-a-minority-of-farmers-prefer-hybrid-rice-seed/

[5]https://businessdiary.com.ph/5488/farmers-in-big-rice-producing-provinces-to-receive-p1200-per-20-kilo-hybrid-rice-seed-discount-this-rainy-season/