By MARVYN N. BENANING
Manila Bulletin
The pledge of incoming President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III to
stop rice importations has buoyed the enthusiasm of officials in spending more funds for hybrid rice seeds.
In a recent report, the Department of Agriculture (DA) credited the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (GMA) Rice Program for bridging the rice deficit and improving the country's food security.
It added that from 2001 to 2009, DA provided only 1.68 million bags of hybrid rice seeds and 12.5 million bags of certified seeds nationwide.
On a per year basis, it meant that the 186,666 bags of hybrid rice seeds were distributed while an average of 1.38 million bags of certified seeds were disseminated nationwide.
Clearly, the volume of rice seeds could not provide any incremental production growth that would shatter the annual deficit placed at 10 percent.
Data culled by the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) for yields of hybrid rice showed the annual average yield for hybrid rice is only 5.58 metric tons (MT) per hectare.
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