By Rocel C. Felix, The Philippine Star via SEARCA BIC

Bayer CropScience Inc., a major global company in the field of research, development and marketing of seeds, is developing a new hybrid rice seed variety that will be introduced in the Philippines market next year.

Carlos Miguel L. Saplala, Philippines Bio-Science manager said the new hybrid rice seed variety will complement its existing hybrid rice seed variety called Bigante which is already widely distributed to key rice-producing regions in the country since its introduction in 2002.

"We are ready to have this new variety registered with the National Seed Industry Council but we want to ensure that its really a good variety and that's why we are still conducting field trials in various sites under different conditions," said Saplala.

The new variety which has yet to be named, approximates the yield of Bigante which could go up to 170 cavans or eight metric tons (MT) per hectare. The difference is that the new seed variety has a shorter maturity period compared to Bigante.

"The results of ongoing trials show that this new variety could be harvested 10 days earlier or in 105 days whereas Bigante takes 115 days before it could be harvested. The new variety also has longer grains than Bigante," noted Saplala.

Having a shorter maturity period is critical for rice farmers who wants raise their yield and incomes. Currently, rice farming has two cropping seasons, the wet season which starts from May to October, while the dry season is from November to April.

"With a crop that matures faster, farmers will have the option of planting a third crop which is in between the cropping seasons. It is also less risky because you could avoid the extreme weather conditions, especially after the dry season, " explained Saplala.

The company is currently conducting wider field trials in at least 50 locations nationwide. This excludes the 15 trials in government farm research station.

"From the research areas, we are testing the new hybrid rice seed variety and bringing it to the farmer level. We give them the inputs, but farm management is up to them. We want to see how this variety fares at their level, since eventually, it will be them that will be planting it when is finally commercialized. Also, we want to be very sure that it is really a good variety before we sell it, " said Saplala.

As this developed, Bayer, lauded government's current move to reduce the subsidy for hybrid rice seed from P1, 750 bags to P1, 300 per bag effective this May.

At the same time, the government through the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) will also stop buying rice seed varieties grown by private enterprises and limit its procurement to varieties produced by its accredited farmer cooperatives.