Modern Technology! Hybrid Rice For Uplands To Boost Food Sufficiency

Seasonal Upland Rice Farming using indigenous and modern varieties, a reliable source of food for many farming families in the countryside for generations, could yet play an important role in averting the impending Rice Crisis in the country.
Thanks to the researches and studies made by Rice Scientists, there are now improved and hybridized Upland Rice Varieties which could be planted off-season with very high yield comparable to those attained in irrigated areas.
Even the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations had been actively promoting the developmen and propagation of upland hybrid rice varieties in such countries as Madagascar.
One of the most outstanding Upland Hybrid Rice Seed Varieties available in the Philippines is the Tatag TH 82 Hybrid (Mestizo NSIC 350H) which is distributed by a Filipino company, Seedworks Philippines, for the US Agriseeds.
First introduced to the Dept. of Agriculture when I was Secretary, the Tatag TH 82 was field tested in Central Mindanao under the leadership of then DA 12 Regional Director Milagros Casis.
The yield was outstanding as it breached 8 metric tons per hectare, a dramatic achievement for seeds sown in non-irrigated areas.
When I moved to the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA), I continued with the experiments for TH 82 opening up trial farms in the uplands both with Israeli Fertigation System and natural precipitation.
Again, the results were outstanding even in the uplands with yield breaching 7 metric tons in areas with a fertigation system and 5 metric tons in non-irrigated plots.
What makes this Hybrid Rice Variety more exciting is the recent development where US Agriseeds and Seedworks collaborated with chemical company BASF in developing a specific herbicide which could effectively kill weeds without affecting the growth of TH 82.
Yesterday, I met with Seedworks Vice President Remus Morandante to ascertain whether the company would be able to help the country in addressing the impending Rice Crisis by making available seeds of TH82.
Morandante said the company has TH 82 seeds enough to cover 200,000 hectares of upland farms which could be identified with the help of PAGASA in view of the onset of the El Niño.
Mindanao has so much upland areas where the TH 82 could be propagated to help prepare the country for the Rice Crisis.
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