The Philippines
July 6, 2007
By Jennifer Ng,
BusinessMirror
via SEAMEO SEARCA
SL
Agritech Corp. (SLAC), one of the country’s three producers
of hybrid rice seeds, is reviving its plan of developing a
hybrid rice variant that is resistant to the dreaded pest called
bacterial leaf blight (BLB) that can reduce rice yields.
In a briefing with reporters, SLAC chairman and executive chief
officer Henry Lim Bon Liong said this in response to the clamor
among farmers using hybrid rice seeds.
“We started efforts to develop a BLB-resistant hybrid rice
variant in 2003[but] because of high cost of [doing research] we
decided to put it on hold,” said Lim.
Lim disclosed it would take about at least one-in-half years
–from development to commercialization—before the variant could
be made available to farmers.
A BLB-resistant hybrid rice variant is desirable to farmers
especially during wet season, when rice stalks are more
susceptible to the pest.
Lim said SLAC continues to be the market leader in the country,
cornering about 60 percent of the market for hybrid rice seeds.
For this year, he said the company expects to sell 200,00
20-kilogram bags of hybrid seeds.
The company has also set its sights on exporting rice seeds to
Bangladesh. SLAC has started shipping out of rice seeds to
Indonesia, where it exported some 50 metric tones (MT) this
year.
“Next Year, we see the shipments of seeds to Indonesia to grown
by 500 MT”, said Lim.
Lim was earlier quoted as saying that the company was setting
its sights on the export market due to uncertainties in the
government’s seed subsidy program.
The SLAC executive said the government would do well to continue
subsidizing the hybrid rice program, not only to ensure that the
Philippines would become self-sufficient in rice but also to
increase farmer’s income.
Producers of hybrid rice seeds like SLAC and Bayer CropSciences
Phils. Inc. claim that their seeds could yield anywhere from 8
MT to 14 MT of palay per hectare.
This is significantly higher than the average of 3 to 4 MT
produced by farmers using inbred and certified seeds.
Other news
from SL
Agritech Corp. |
|
