April 3-5, 2013
The Department of Agriculture and its attached agency, the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), organized the country’s first National Hybrid Rice Congress at the PhilRice headquarters at Science City of Muñoz in Nueva Ecija province.
With the theme “Bigas na Sapat, Binhing Hybrid ang Kabalikat,” the congress highlighted the importance of the hybrid rice industry in the government’s vision of attaining rice sufficiency under its Food Staples Sufficiency Program.
According to PhilRice, hybrid seeds increase farmers’ rice yield by 21 percent compared to the conventional or regular seeds.
Project proponents from public and private sectors have introduced various hybrid rice seed varieties since the government’s launching of the Hybrid Rice Commercialization Program in 2002.
April 4, 2017
Personnel from different government agencies dismantled fish pens in Laguna de Bay’s section in Binangonan and Cardona towns in Rizal province.
The move to clear the lake of fish pens and cages, which have been choking the lake for decades, was part of the government’s efforts to rehabilitate the 90,000-hectare Laguna de Bay, the country’s largest freshwater body.
Of the entire lake area, about 12,000 ha are covered by fish pens owned by more or less 300 individuals and corporations.
Fish pen owners were given until March 31, 2017, to demolish their structures, or else the government would sequester their structures. But many fish pen owners defied the order.
Compiled by Kathleen de Villa, Inquirer Research