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Tabuk hybrid rice crop drops

TABUK CITY, Kalinga – Tabuk may have lost its reputation as the hybrid rice capital of the country after its production of hybrid seed and hybrid commercial rice plunged drastically the last three years.

In 2003 and 2004, Tabuk exceeded the farm area of 700 hectares for F1 or hybrid seed production and 7,000 hectares for commercial hybrid rice or F2 production.

During this wet season, its planting areas are now down to 40 hectares for F1
production and 1,579 for commercial rice production.

City Agricultural Services Officer Gilbert Cawis said the drastic reduction in
planting area is attributed to a lot of factors, including the deterioration of the quality of both the F1 seeds and the AxB seeds (parent lines of F1).

Cawis said many commercial rice farmers were discouraged to plant hybrid rice after their supposed F1 seeds yielded multi-variety rice, noting that the seed producers were also discouraged after their AxB seeds had been found to be impure.

He hinted that the Philrice, one of the government agencies promoting the hybrid rice technology, is partly responsible, saying it was the source of the AxB seeds planted in Tabuk.

He also blamed Tabuk farmers, noting some of them did not weed out off-type plants. He also blamed seed inspectors of the Kalinga provincial government for not being strict in the implementation of the procedure for F1 production.

Not only local farmers are the victims of the low-quality seeds but also farmers in other regions where the F1 production of Tabuk was sold.

Cawis said he has learned from the Agriculture Training Institute that Bicol farmers were complaining about the impure seeds sold to them by Tabuk farmers.

He said rouging is necessary because once the seeds are harvested, there is no way to determine if these are F1 seeds, adding that these look the same although the genetic characteristics are different.

Another factor in the reduction of F1 production is the difficulty of collecting payments from the Cordillera office of the Department of Agriculture, Cawis said.

There are times when it takes two cropping seasons before the payment for the seeds is collected.

"If the farmer has only two hectares and has planted AxB to the whole area, where would he get his operational expenses in the next cropping season if his seeds are not paid on time?" he asked.

He said that farm workers compound the problem by charging higher fees for pulling and planting seedlings.

He said for inbred rice, farm workers charge P3,600 for pulling and transplanting the seedlings, but they demand P4,000 for hybrid rice.

Cawis added change in the eating quality of Mestizo 1, one of two government hybrid rice varieties, has worked against the promotion of hybrid rice among farmers.

He observed that the higher price of hybrid seeds as against inbred rice seeds is also turning away farmers.

With the government subsidy for each bag of F1 at P1,000, the farmer’s equity is P1,400. It is higher if the seed is produced by private companies.

The question nagging Cawis and other agriculture officials in the province is how to regain the distinction of Tabuk as the leader in hybrid rice production among towns in the country.

Cawis said that the recent entry of private firms in the production of hybrid seeds in Tabuk is an initial step towards this direction because these firms are very strict in the enforcement of the standards of seed production.

This cropping season, SL8 Agritech, the leading private seed producer, has expanded its operation to Tabuk, planting 14.5 hectares to its AxR variety. -- EAJ