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Pangasinan farmers hesitate to plant HYVs

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan (Mar. 22) — Despite intensified efforts by the different agriculture-related agencies in the province to promote the propagation of hybrid rice varieties, the province’s rice farmers remain hesitant to venture in the F1 HYVs.

The F1 variety is now being introduced to substitute the inbreed varieties predominantly used in local rice production.

Three teams, composed of different government agencies and representatives from private institutions, are doing rounds in all the six districts or 26 towns of Pangasinan to promote the usage, cultivation and seedling propagation of F1 varieties.

Provincial Agriculturist Jose Almendares said the teams are composed of the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), Department of Agriculture (DA) Agricultural Training Institute (ATI), National Irrigation Administration (NIA) and local government units (LGUs) in partnership with Bayer Phils., SL Agritech and Quedan Rural Credit and Lending Corp., (Quedancor).

Almendares said the groups are targeting 12,000 hectares (has.) of rain-fed lands to be planted with F1 varieties in time for the rainy season to potentially yield about 12 tons of rice per hectare.

Varieties such as Mestizo 1 and 2, Bigante and SL 8 are to be supplied by PhilRice, Bayer Phils. and SL Agritech, respectively. All of which are given government subsidy of P1,300.

Maira Paliso, District Supervisor of Quedancor based in Dagupan City said the lending institution will provide P10,000 loan for potential growers to be given in kind.

Her agency, she said, is still awaiting the April 15 culmination of the technical briefing and training being conducted by team 1 (district 1 & 2), team 2 (district 3 & 4) and team 3 (district 5 & 6) to determine the number of loan applicants.

Almendares said, “As of now, there is little impact among local farmers because they are hesitant to use the new varieties as they were used to inbred varieties”.

While F1 varieties yield doubly, he said factors like climate change, adaptable location and high technology requirement in seedling preparation need to be further studied to suit the province’s nature of rice production. Absence of storage warehouse in towns where the seeds are to be kept for availability also poses problem, he said.

“Pangasinan has a big stake for hybrid rice production considering its irrigated lands and large number of rice farmers,” he said adding: “We aim to be the next surplus rice producer to meet the needs of other regions”.

In 2004, rice shortage was placed at 1.08 million metric tons (mmt) while this year the country’s rice requirements is pegged at 15.75 mmt, government data show. # Jhong dela Cruz for NORDIS

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