Rice seed piracy: boon or bane to agriculture in The Philippines

Carlos D. Marquez Jr.
Philippines TODAY (11-12 December 2004)
via SEARCA BIC

Seed piracy has raised alarm to local farmers and puzzled rice scientists on whether it is beneficial or disadvantageous to the country's agriculture sector. 

And while local seed growers are bothered that seed pirates might have already been selling inferior quality products at the expense of their legitimate business, government agriculturists, in turn, are suspecting that the ones behind the anomaly are some seed growers themselves. 

Seed piracy happens, according to Hilario de la Cruz, senior consultant for the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PHILRICE) here, when certain participants in government-sponsored on-field seed technology demonstration become interested on a variety on test. 

"He [seed pirate] would probably pluck a developed tiller with panicle, bring it home and try planting it. When he finds it promising, he would then start to propagate the 'stolen' seed-on-test so that other farmers, impressed by the result of the first planting, would also use it in their respective farms. Until the 'pirated' seed variety spreads to other places," de la Cruz told Today. 

Besides seed-testing collaborators, as participants in seed-testing sessions are called, de la Cruz said, "Some seed growers, speculating, also do this." 

Some of the popular rice varieties, according to de la Cruz, that started as "pirated" include the Angelica, Burdagol and AR32. 

The case of Angelica and Burdagol 

Angelica's protocol was about to be recommended by a group of some 100 participants simultaneously holding demonstration in 26 separate field-demonstration sites some three years back, when an unknown PHILRICE collaborator picked it up, sowed and planted it in Agusan del Sur. "It obviously made an impressive result, until it multiplied and spread in Luzon," de la Cruz said. 

In Agusan, the "pirated" seed variety produced high yield, proved resistant to excessive rain, has long grain and good milling recovery. Then it was named after a popular female politician. "Not the popular television dancing celebrity, Angelica Jones," de la Cruz corrected. 

"We could not do anything anymore but to baptize it," de la Cruz said. 

Burdagol's case was similar. The material was being tested in PHILRICE in the early '90s, although it was a germplasm of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), when another unidentified farmer-seed-testing collaborator picked and planted a sample in Mindanao. "The rest was history," he said. 

Burdagol, with the initial actual test made by farmers treated as "passport for reselection," was later named PSBRC-34. 

A long-time practice? 

Rice seed piracy has been allegedly a practice for a long time not only in the Philippines but even in other countries where IRRI has a station. 

Roger Cabanilla of a local crop research group Maligaya Agricultural Research Consultancy said another example was IRRI's IR36, a popular variety known for its glutinous and white grain. 

"It was first known in Mindanao as 'seven-tonner' because it produced seven tons of grains in a hectare even when it was not approved yet for commercial planting by the Philippine Seed Board [PSB]." 

"It was only when IRRI found the result of the first test-planting that it renamed the variety IR36 and was later adopted by PSB to make it legitimate," Cabanilla said. 

Roger Barroga, director of PHILRICE-initiated Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture, said the government is not strict in rice seed propagation. "In fact, we even encourage farmers to produce a seed of their own, especially in areas where there are no government-accredited seed growers," he said. 

In 1996, however, local seed growers complained that their business was being adversely affected by what they termed as "unauthorized" seed proliferation. "Then, we had to keep quiet about encouraging farmers to produce their own seed," Barroga said. 

Naming rice seeds 

A PHILRICE publication detailed how rice-seed varieties are named. It begins with the coding based on the institution the seed was first developed. "For example, IR64 was from the [IRRI]; BPI Ri10 from the Bureau of Plant Industry [BPI]; and UPL Ri7 from UP Los Baños." 

Since 1990 varieties were coded RSB Rc to give credit to local-rice research and development workers who tested and propagated them. 

Rice seed names are composed of initials and numbers. Even number means lowland-suited variety, and odd number for upland. Some lowland varieties were later named after rivers or lakes, while some upland were baptized with names of mountains. 

In some cases, farmers give the popular names as in the case of Angelica and Burdagol. 

Government leniency 

The seeming government leniency has led to the undetermined number of rice varieties considered as "pirated." De la Cruz admitted that it violates the Republic Act 9168, or the Protection of Plant Variety Protocol Act of 2002. 

"But we cannot impose it because a farmer [or seed grower who 'pirated'] a seed and give it a popular name, which later becomes acceptable according to the set standards will then be protected by IPR [Intellectual Property Rights] after the government recognizes his effort," he said. 

This gave an impression that seed piracy is all right with the government once it is acknowledged by the concerned agencies. 

The amount involved in the process is another thing to consider. "The government is spending around P6 million annually for multilocation rice seed-testing. It is from these demonstration sessions where piracy, if it can be called as such, begins. Besides, a seed grower spends P5,000 for each material he registers with PHILRICE and PSB, even as the material was earlier pirated," de la Cruz added. 

De la Cruz said it takes about 11 years for a seed-including the so-called pirated ones-to become commercially viable. 

The first five years were spent for breeding, the next three years for multilocation testing and the rest for final evaluation on some factors like milling recovery, chemical analysis and others, he explained. 

In the breeding stage, the seed should produce 100-percent purity to pass as "foundation," then as "registered," as "certified" and finally as "good seed" for commercial adoption. 

Seed growers get the blame 

The farmers, or seed growers, who are involved in the stages that make up for seed-certification process could be blamed for the proliferation of "pirated seeds." 

A nongovernment organization called South East Asian Regional Initiatives for Community Empowerment (Searice) said, "It needs the interplay of actors-farmers, seed growers, government and traders-before a variety becomes commercialized. 

In the end, "the farmers are mainly responsible in adopting new varieties, or discarding them," a Searice online position paper said. 

Local seed grower Precy Catumbang of Muñoz Science City echoed her peers' apprehension. "If the quality of these 'pirated seeds' prove poor, then the blame would surely be tossed to us, legitimate seed growers. They might also sell their pirated seed variety at lower than the prevailing prices," she told Today. 

In Nueva Ecija, rice seeds are priced according to classification. A 20-kilo-bag foundation seed costs P1,200; a 40-kilo-bag registered seed is P800; and 40-kilo-bag certified seed is P650. 

De la Cruz recalled the opinion of former UP president Emil Javier in one of the national seed evaluation meetings as saying: "You should be very happy they are stealing your product. You should worry why your product is not noticed."