Philippine Hybrid Rice Gains Int’l Acceptance; Indonesia Plants Big Area

MB.com, by Melody Aguiba, June 3, 2012

The locally developed SL-8 hybrid rice has become a popular international rice variety with 32,000 hectares now planted in Indonesia and is expanding rapidly in Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Africa.

Hybrid Rice

A total of 105,000 hectares is aimed to be planted with SL AGritech Corp.’s (SLAC) hybrid rice varieties in Indonesia.

The company’s agreement with the Indonesian government has led to a plan to expand the hybrid area which consists of 40,000 hectares in East Kalimantan, 21,000 hectares in South Kalimantan, 34,000 hectares in South Sulawesi, and 10,000 hectares in Southeast Sulawesi.

SLAC is also shipping this year 1,000 metric tons (MT) of seeds to Bangladesh in an agreement with the government and another 1,000 MT to Vietnam.

"The Philippines is now famous among Bangladesh farmers because Bangladesh traditionally uses Chinese hybrid. But it’s only SL that has become a government-supported hybrid, so they’re always talking about SL-8 as a government hybrid," SLAC President Henry Lim Bon Liong said in a press briefing.

It will beef up seed shipment volume to Myanmar, Brunei, India, and Nigeria.

But the aim of the company is to partner with foreign governments so that the hybrid rice seeds may be grown abroad rather than exported from the Philippines.

"We want to do seed production in their land because we have limited land," said Lim.

In Myanmar, SLAC initially shipped 10 to 11 MT of parental seeds worth $35,000 which has since been showing favorable results.

"During the harvest of the seeds, even the president of Myanmar was there because it their highest yield (so far) in Myanmar," he said.

A yield of up to 17 MT per hectare has already been achieved in the country from these hybrid rice seeds since the government adopted a hybrid rice program 10 years ago.

Among the highest yielders were Severino Payumo, 17.28 MT per hectare in Nueva Ecija; Aida Badong, 17.2 MT, Camarines Sur; Fernando Gabuyo, 16.75 MT, Nueva Ecija; and Eduardo Policarpio, 15.8 MT, Nueva Ecija.

Yield in Bangladesh has been reaching to 12 MT per hectare.

While India is also a hybrid rice seed producing country, SLAC has an opportunity to expand in India, said Lim, while it is likewise expanding in Nigeria.

"Nigeria is a top importer of rice. Before they were the largest importer until we overtook them as the largest rice importer. They’re very sincere in expanding hybrid rice area. That’s why we’ll send technicians over to them, he said.

"Before they used to eat just corn and sorghum. But rice is easy to prepare, is tender, and has the aroma which they got to like so consumption went up. A lot of African countries will eat more rice in the future. The market is going to be bigger and bigger."

Lim said that while the Department of Agriculture aims to export rice, the government may do better by targeting to export high yielding hybrid rice which can make exporting more globally competitive.

"We can never be competitive at the $400 price of rice in the market. The production cost of Vietnam is only P8 per kilo. Maybe our cost of production is P11 cost per kilo."

Harvesting only three to four MT per hectare will not make the country export-competitive, but hybrid rice’s higher yield that can reach 11 to 12 MT per hectare will bring costs down, he said.