MANILA (Commodity Online) : World’s largest rice importer, the Philippines aimed to reduce nearly ten billion pesos of rice importations cost from next year by boosting hybrid production technology.

According to country’s Agriculture Department, instead of 376,928 metric tons, the country plans to have 377,000 MT of hybrid rice during crop year 2011 to reduce rice imports estimated at $144.84 million to $209.11 million, or P6.5 billion to P9.4 billion.

The Department intends to plant hybrid rice to 505,623 hectares in 2011 and harvest up to 2.66 million MT under the commercial hybrid rice program.

If things go according to government’s Rice Master Plan, the department expects farm output to reach sufficiency status in two years or by 2013

The Philippines needs to produce 21.61 million MT of rice to be self-sufficient in the commodity.

Rice production in the Philippines grew 3 percent a year on average in the last nine years except in 2009 when several typhoons devastated major rice-producing of Luzon.

However, consumption also outpaced production, a recent survey of the government rice program showed. Demand grew at 4.7 percent, owing to the 2.13-percent annual population growth.

Despite the lower rice output in the first quarter of 2010, Philippines said it will try to meet its target of 17.4 million MT this year.

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