Hills Turn Green! Bukidnon Tribal Domain Grows Hybrid Upland Rice

A Bukidnon Tribal Clan has planted modern Hybrid Upland Rice in the hills of their ancestral land in Malaybalay.
Where shrubs and grass used to grow, rows of green young rice have sprouted.
Yesterday, lawyer and former Integrated Bar of the Phils. president Burt Estrada who belongs to the Tagoloanon Tribe of Bukidnon, sent me photos of rows of the Hybrid Tatag TH82 planted Feb. 8.
By the second week of May, the Tribal Clan will harvest the first Hybrid Rice planted in the Ancestral Domain.
The Tatag TH82, also known as NSIC RCE350H, is a new rice variety which could be planted in dryland and upland culture.
It grows on natural precipitation or rain which is why it is planted during the traditional Upland Rice planting season from January to March.
First field-tested by the Dept. of Agriculture Region 12 in Lambayong, Sultan Kudarat when I was Secretary in 2018, TH82 yielded between 6 to 8 metric tons.
When I moved to the Mindanao Development Authority in 2019, trials were conducted in Upland Areas where the yield was between 4 to 6 metric tons.
TH82 is ideal in rain-fed rice farms.
Recently, when the threat of a global rice supply shortage loomed,I designed a program called “Kalahating Ektarya Bawat Pamilya” rice farming program.
The program aims to reintroduce the traditional Upland Rice Farming in the Tribal Areas, encouraging families to plant rice for their consumption.
The program also recommends the installation of mini-rice mills in the villages which the Tribal Families could use in miling their produce.
The Philippine Rice Research Institute represented by Dr. Sailila Abdula and Seedworks Phils. which distributes TH82 helped in the crafting of the KEBP.
It was DA Region 10 Director Carlene Collado and recently Caraga Region Director Ricardo Oñate who adopted the program.
The Tagoloanon Tribe of Bukidnon has identified 300 hectares for the program.
The first 3 hectares which would serve as the Demo site in Malaybalay.
The KEBP which targets 500,000 hectares in the 5-million hectare Ancestral Domain Areas over 4 years aims to address food security and poverty in the Tribal Areas of the country.
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