EDITORIAL

PhilRice Prepares To Improve
Upland Rice Yield

To support the Department of Agriculture’s rice development program for the upland, the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) sets down to prepare plans to help increase rice yields in said upland areas.

"We are gearing up for our upland projects to be implemented next year. The upland remains our priority as incorporated in the PhilRice’s program on developing technologies to break the low yield barriers in rainfed, upland, and other adverse environment," Atty. Ronilo A. Beronio, PhilRice executive director said.

He reported that rice varieties and breeding lines yielding four (4) tons per hectare per season will be developed. Varieties being planted in the upland such as NSIC Rc9, popularly known as Apo, have an average yield of about three (3) tons per hectare per season and are susceptible to tungro, blast, brown planthopper, and green leaf hopper.

"The upland, with 100,000 harvested hectares nationwide, is prone to abiotic stresses such as inadequate moisture. Rice must be genetically improved to become resilient to abiotic stresses; thus, the new varieties to be developed will be high yielding, resistant to pests, and of good grain quality," Beronio assured.

Moreover, recommendations for improved pest manage-ment will be produced. By assessing the extent of pest incidences and enhancing farmers’ practices, among others, Beronio said yield loss due to pest attack could be reduced by 10 percent.

Strains of rice blast occurring in the upland will also be characterized as drought stress and year-round presence of blast spores in the air triggers blast incidence in these areas.

Likewise, appropriate water lifting devices using renewable energy sources and rain water harvesting system for small farms will be generated.

"Other than the development and pro-motion of technologies, we will also advance the concept of Palayamanan to increase the income and address food security at the farmers’ household," Beronio said. Palayamanan is a diversified integrated rice-based farming system.

Since 1993, PhilRice has been involved in improving rice productivity in the upland through its membership to the Consortium for Un-favorable Rice Environ-ments (CURE), an organization composed of 26 national agricultural research and extension systems based in the 10 Asian countries. It aims to benefit 100 million farm households in Asia that are dependent on rice and living in areas stricken with poverty and food insecurity.

Under CURE project, PhilRice provided technical support in preserving and improving traditional varieties such as Dinorado and Azucena in Arakan Valley, Arakan, North Cotabato, and in diversifying crops planted in the upland.

DA-PhilRice is a government–owned and–controlled corporation that aims at developing high-yielding and cost-reducing technologies so farmers can produce enough rice for all Filipinos.

Not only rice farmers living in the upland rice areas are suffering from low productivity and income but also other farmers. They are having difficulty in food production because of the lack of water for irrigation and domestic consumption.

But there is still time to develop for agricultural researchers to look for and design appropriate upland technologies not only for rice but for other crops like vegetables, fruits and live stocks. The government for years has been concentrating its assistance to farmers in the lowland. It must not only be the PhilRice to look for possible solutions to upgrade productivity and income of the people living in the upland. All agencies, government and private, must now concentrate their efforts and resources to upgrade the lifestyle of the people in upland areas. /MP