Mindanao rice farmers eager to cash in on the expected world-wide shortage of rice supply because of the COVID-9 Pandemic are now looking at a revolutionary hybrid rice seeds which could be sowed in dry fields with yields up to 10 metric tons per hectare.
Seedworks TH 82, developed by US Agriseeds, was field tested in the different parts of Mindanao when I was still Secretary of Agriculture.
TH 82, which stands for Tatag Hybrid 82, submitted record yields of up to 8 to 10 metric tons in un-irrigated and rainfed areas.
It could also be planted in irrigated paddy fields with yields surpassing 10 metric tons making it a versatile variety of rice seeds.
The national average rice production per hectare is only 3.9 metric tons per hectare although it increased slightly to 4.1-MT per hectare in 2017.
TH 82 was one of the hybrid rice seeds promoted by the Department of Agriculture to increase rice production but the advocacy suffered a setback when a law was passed mandating the use of inbred seeds for the government’s rice production program.
This hybrid rice is now the focus of attention in the face of a feared shortage of supply as traditional exporting countries have either reduced or suspended their rice exports because of the economic uncertainties caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic.
The Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) recently presented to local government units of Mindanao the Self-Sustaining Food Security strategy which involves the inventory of existing food supplies and the quantification of the food requirements of a locality.
With the recent report that Vietnam, the country’s biggest source of imported rice, may suspend exports, Mindanao LGUs are now starting to conduct an inventory of their available supply.
The most urgent task of LGUs now is to produce enough rice for their constituents but since the heavy rains have yet to come, traditional rice planting could not yet start.
MinDA will now initiate talks with the US Agriseeds for a special program where they could extend seeds loan to LGUs.
If implemented immediately, the Rice Production Catch-Up Program for Mindanao could yet stave off the feared rice supply shortfall.
(Photos attached here were taken last year and in 2018 during the field trials of TH82.)
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