Unrecognized at home! Top Filipino Rice Farmer Joins PNG Rice Program

The Philippines’ Most Outstanding Rice Farmer whose 16.9-metric tons production per hectare is the highest on record, leads the team of Filipino rice experts who will help develop the Rice Industry of our Southern Neighbor, Papua New Guinea.
Danilo Arcales Bolos, an engineer from Tondo, Manila who worked for many years as an OFW but settled in Tagpos, Sta. Rosa, Nueva Ecija where he planted rice 20 years ago, joined me in the recent trip to Papua New Guinea to assess the viability of rice farming in the country.
What he saw impressed Dan Bolos no end.
“Perfect ang klase ng lupa para sa pagtatanim ng palay at napakataba ng lupa,” Dan Bolos told me after we visited the wide plains of Gabadi in Central Province, one hour away from the capital of Port Moresby.
(The soil is perfect for rice farming and the land is so fertile.)
Dan Bolos, who now plants rice in a 36-hectare farm in Tapgos, Sta. Rosa had consistently posted harvests of 14 to 16 metric tons per harvest using a protocol he developed over the last 20 years.
His harvest per hectare is three times higher than the national average yield of 4 metric tons.
Bolos used hybrid rice seeds produced by a Filipino seed company, SL Agritech, owned by Filipino businessman Henry Lim Bon Liong, and applies a combination of Organic and Inorganic fertilizer in his farm.
While Bolos also plants Inbred Rice Seeds, he says that Hybrid Rice Seeds will dramatically boost rice production in the Philippines, a view which is not shared by legislators who crafted the Rice Tariffication Law which limits the areas to be planted to Hybrid Seeds.
Even Filipino-American farmer-scientist Rocky French is awed and impressed by the talent of Dan Bolos in rice farming.
“This guy is a genius but it’s a pity that his talent is not being tapped by the government,” French said.
Dan Bolos, whom I befriended when I was Secretary of Agriculture, is part of the team which I formed advocating for the transfer of correct rice farming technology and proper fertilization to the country’s rice farmers.
When I was asked by the PNG government to help in the crafting of its National Rice Sufficiency Program, I decided to bring Dan Bolos along with me.
Dan Bolos’ talent will be a big boost in the goal of Papua New Guinea, which imports almost all of its 400,00-metric-ton rice requirements every year, to build its own rice industry.
The PNG government has identified 100,000 hectares of unused State and Customary lands in Gabadi for the Rice Program which aims to attain Self-Sufficiency in 10 years.
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