DA adopting measures to keep record palay output

The Department of Agriculture has launched a program that promotes the propagation of high-yield rice varieties amid efforts to maintain the yearly growth of domestic output.

The DA expects that, through the High Yielding Technology Adoption (HYTA) program, the country may inch closer to the goal of self sufficiency in rice production.

Promoted under the HYTA program is the use among farmers of hybrid rice, certified inbred seeds, and the so-called Green Super Rice (GSR).

According to the International Rice Research Institute, the GSR is a mix of more than 250 different potential rice varieties and hybrids variously that are adapted to difficult growing conditions such as drought and low inputs, including no pesticide, less fertilizer and less herbicides.

Agriculture Undersecretary Antonio Fleta, who heads the DA’s national rice program, said the HYTA program expects high yielding seeds to be planted in more than 560,000 hectares of rice fields all over the country.

“The HYTA program will help the country attain the 622,000-metric-ton palay production target for 2015, and more than 1 million MT palay for 2016,” Fleta said in a statement.

He said the program will be implemented in areas with good irrigation and where farmers’ organizations are ready to adopt “high yield rice technology like hybrid and certified seeds,” he added.

Fleta added that while the average growth rate in palay production from 2011 to 2013 was 3.2 yearly, target for 2015 is 5.35 percent and for 2016 2.1 percent.

Earlier this month, the DA signed a memorandum of agreement with the German Federal Enterprise for International Cooperation (GIZ) on a three-year project to improve education support for rice farmers, dubbed Better Rice Initiative Asia-Fostering Agriculture and Rice Marketing by Improved Education and Rural Advisory Services (Bria-Farmers).

Alcala explained that the P90-million Bria-Farmers is meant to help enhance food security through improved education and advisory services for some 8,000 farmers in the provinces of Aurora, Iloilo and Southern Leyte.