Philippines and China collaboration key to producing Philippine local hybrid rice seeds

The SL Agritech Corporation (SLAC), the Philippines' pioneer hybrid rice seeds producer, has developed its own hybrid rice, SL-8H, in collaboration with China and using Chinese hybrid rice technology.

Joh Dungca, SLAC promotions and advertising manager, said that the technology that they used in developing the local hybrid rice seeds was adopted from China through Professor Yuan Longping, the acknowledged father of hybrid rice.

Originally, the SLAC has collaborated with China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center (CNHR-RDC) in developing the SL-8H hybrid rice, which has now enabled farmers to harvest seven to 10 MT per hectare compared to only three to five MT using in-bred varieties.

According to Dungca, they are now coordinating with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) and Philippine-Sino Center for Agricultural Technology (PhilSCAT) in technology updates on hybrid rice.

SLAC, Dungca said, is now producing its own hybrid rice seeds from their production sites in Lupon, Davao Oriental in Mindanao and in the research and development site in Sta. Cruz, Laguna in southern Luzon.

The company is now exporting locally-produced hybrid rice seeds to neighboring countries in Asia.

SLAC Chairman Henry Lim Bon Liong said that the hybrid rice seeds that they produce are suitable during both the dry and wet season.

According to Lim, the five pesos (0.125 U.S. dollar) per kilo production cost, which is being targeted by the Department of Agriculture (DA), is possible only if farmers will use hybrid rice because this can produce an average of 10 MT yield at 50,000 pesos (1,250 U.S. dollars) per hectare cost.

The DA has said that by using the super hybrid rice from China, Filipino farmers can access higher yield of 10 tons per hectare at five pesos per kilogram or SHR-10-5 program.

DA Secretary Proceso Alcala said that the country is already approaching rice self-sufficiency with only 187,000 metric tons ( MT) of imports this year.

Through the SHR-10-5, the government expressed optimism that the goal to make Filipino farmers rich is achievable, Alcala said.

Alcala said that the Philippine government has a long ongoing cooperation with China through the PhilSCAT.

SLAC's Lim said that in China, their hybrid rice area is just almost 60 percent of the vast country's total land area because they have highlands affected by winter. But in the Philippines the weather is good and "we can plant hybrid rice year-round," he said.

The country's hybrid rice area is only at five percent of the land area at 146,000 hectares in 2012.

During the first National Hybrid Rice Congress held April 3-5 at the PhilRice in Munoz, Nueva Ecija in Central Luzon, north of Manila, it was agreed that by using the hybrid rice technology from China, the Philippines could become not just self-sufficient in rice but can even become a rice-exporting country.

The congress, whose main speaker was agriculture scientist Yuan Longping, was held to strengthen the hybrid rice industry in the Philippines.

Yuan, a recipient of several international awards including the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2011, predicts that the super hybrid rice will become a commercial success in the Philippines in three years.

"We will send super hybrid varieties for testing here next year in the dry season. Maybe after three years, our super hybrid rice will be commercialized in the Philippines through our joint efforts. We will strengthen the friendship between Philippines and China through it," Yuan said.

Yuan, who is the CNHR-RDC director general, however, stressed that mechanization is an important component of the SHR program. He said China can assist the Philippines through a 69 million pesos grant (1.7 million U.S. dollars) up to 2016 that will be coursed through the PhilSCAT.

PhilSCAT is the first and largest technical assistance project of China to this country. It is part of the 100 million-U.S. dollar-credit loan (684.63 million yuan) signed in 2000 between the Philippines Department of Agriculture and the Ministry of Agriculture of China.

China provided 5-million-U.S. dollar (34.23 million yuan) outright donation, while the DA provided land and allocated 10.5 million pesos (207,734 U.S. dollars) to pay for part of the cost of construction of buildings and facilities and personnel salary. Total cost is around 500 million pesos (10.39 million U.S. dollars) .

About 50 Chinese hybrid rice varieties (CHRV) were initially introduced. The best performing ones, 33 in all, were selected after series of testing in the country's 22 rice-growing municipalities. Seven new varieties were developed by PhilSCAT.