Click here to increase harvests with lower inputs costs.The Philippine government will make available subsidy for hybrid rice until March 15, 2010, an official of the Department of Agriculture (DA) said.
Dr. Frisco Malabanan, director of the DA’s Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (GMA) Rice Program, said farmers planting for the dry cropping season will still enjoy the subsidy pegged at P1,200.
“The President extended the subsidy to 2010 so farmers can still use it,” said Malabanan.
In a message on the 2010 budget posted on the web site of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), the President said of the P37.8-billion proposed budget for the DA next year, P3.1 billion will go to the GMA rice program.
The President said the amount set aside for the GMA rice program will be used to distribute 60.8 million kilos of seeds to 860,000 farmer-beneficiaries, and train 373,290 farmers and extension workers.
Earlier, agriculture officials said the government will stop providing the hybrid-rice subsidy by October or November of 2009.
In April Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said the government will also reduce the subsidy extended to certified seeds by half or to P600.
Rice Watch Action Network (R1) noted that based on its own research, the DA has proposed the allocation of some P750 million for hybrid-rice seed subsidy in 2010. This is 24 percent higher than the P602 million set aside for hybrid-rice seed subsidies this year.
“Despite earlier pronouncements made by the DA, the proposed subsidy for hybrid-rice seeds for 2010 is even higher,” said R1 lead convenor Jessica Reyes Cantos.
As of press time, officials of the DA could not be reached for comment.
The DA launched the Hybrid Rice Commercialization Program (HRCP) in December 2001 via Administrative Order 25. Its goal was to promote the widespread use of hybrid-rice seed technology to enhance farm productivity and income. The HRCP was initially implemented in the 2002 wet cropping season.
In a paper, titled “Embracing Hybrid Rice,” the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) noted that the program relied heavily on the commercial availability of hybrid seeds.
Initially, PhilRice said the government provided production support to seed growers in the form of free seed parentals, low volume sprayer, and technical and credit assistance.
To encourage farmers to use hybrid-rice seeds, the government shouldered half of the cost, pegged at P60 per kilogram or P1,200 for a 20-kilogram bag.
PhilRice noted the Philippine government was inspired by the success story of China where hybrid-rice seeds yielded 20 percent to 30 percent more than the output of inbred rice varieties using the same level of inputs.
In 2006 former PhilRice executive director Leocadio Sebastian pushed for the immediate phaseout of the hybrid-rice subsidy since the HRCP is no longer in the “promotional stage.”
Sebastian also said the money for the HRCP should be rechanneled to extension services and to the construction and rehabilitation of farm infrastructure such as irrigation systems.
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