Hybrid rice to make RP self-sufficient — exec

Hybrid rice is the answer to the country’s perennial cereal supply problem, according to Henry Lim, chairman and chief executive officer of SL Agritech Corp., who added he is of the strong belief that the Philippines would achieve rice self-sufficiency in three years “if the government would aggressively push its hybrid rice propagation program.”

“That, I believe would spell the end to rice imports. It is lamentable to note that since 1985 and almost every year thereafter, we have been importing the cereal, spending billions of pesos. Think of it, we are subsidizing foreign farmers instead of our own farmers,” Lim said.

He said the Philippine economy would improve to a large degree if the living standards of the local farmers are raised.

He noted that the government, through its Ginintuang Masaganang Ani hybrid rice program, “continues to provide assistance to our hybrid rice farmers in a more massive scale. Our country’s best option to become self-sufficient in rice is hybrid rice and its accompanying technology,” Lim said.

The government, he added, implemented the hybrid rice technology in a bid to cut down rice importation, create millions of jobs in the countryside and improve farmers’ income through higher yields.

He said in China, more than 60 percent of its rice lands are planted to hybrid rice. With over 1.3 billion people to feed, China is not only self-sufficient in rice but it has also enough for export.

The result of the Chinese effort was the development of hybrid rice which increased by mega number its rice production, invigorated its rural economy and shot up the living standards of its farmers.

He said the crowning glory he would like to achieve for the Philippines is the end of rice importation, the country’s achievement of rice self-sufficiency, and the consequent upliftment of the economic life of the Filipino farmers.