MANILA (Commodity Online) : World’s largest rice importer, Philippines targets to plant high-yielding hybrid rice varieties in as many as 250,000 hectares of irrigated land this year.

According to country’s National Rice Program (NRP) much of the planting will be in Central Luzon area.



In a report, NRP said, "Our target is to plant hybrid seeds in 185,000 hectares in the dry cropping season (December-May) while the balance will be planted during the wet cropping season (June-November)”.

Philippines expects to lose 264,940 -816,372 metric tons of rice from drought, before a rebound expected in the second half.

The higher end of the projected loss has prompted the government to raise its rice import projection to 3.2 million metric tons from 2.4 million MT.

Philippines has been planting hybrid rice seeds in an average of 250,000-300,000 hectares a year, though a series of storms that hit in the fourth quarter last year had trimmed the area to 200,000 hectares.

The goal was to plant such seeds in 500,000-700,000 hectares a year by 2013. said NRP.

High-yielding hybrid seeds are more expensive than certified seeds, costing P3,500-P4,000 per 40-kilogram bag, compared with P1,200 per 40-kg bag for inbred certified seeds.

But the yield of hybrid seeds averages 6.4 MT per hectare, compared with inbred certified seeds’ 4.3 MT and a national yield average of 3.8 MT.

Hybrid rice planting is one the measures adopted by the government to achieve rice self-sufficiency by 2013.

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