Cheaper rice seeds in works

MANILA, Philippines—The Department of Agriculture (DA) has announced it is going to develop and market cheaper hybrid rice seeds to help Filipino farmers increase rice yields.

Dante Delima, head of the national rice program, said the market intervention was part of the DA’s plan to achieve rice self-sufficiency and stop the importation of the staple by 2013.

“We are doing this to improve competition in hybrid rice production because at the moment it is monopolized by the private sector,” said Delima in a recent interview.

According to Delima, the government will spend P117 million to develop and sell hybrid rice seed varieties Mestizo 19 and Mestizo 20 that were developed by the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice). The DA will sell an 18-kilo bag of seeds for P3,000.

Commercial seed sellers price an 18-kilo bag at P4,500. DA officials said many of the private seed companies also bought seeds from PhilRice.

Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala said commercial rice seed firms should not be wary of the DA’s program. “The government still does not have a big enough budget to squeeze them out of the market,” he said.

“They should not be nervous. We just need to help the farmers,” Alcala said.

Delima said the DA was targeting production of about 375,000 metric tons of rice during the dry season of 2012 to make up for the losses from typhoons.