Hybrid seeds yield 35% more rice per hectare - Agriculture

Rice farmers who used hybrid seeds in the summer crop season harvested 35.6 percent more rice than those who planted inbred certified seeds, the Agriculture Department said Monday. More than 55,000 hectares of palay fields in Nueva Ecija, planted to hybrid rice in the 2010 dry cropping season, yielded 7.73 metric tons per hectare, Dr. Frisco Malabanan, head of the department’s Ginintuang Masaganang Ani Rice Program said in a report to Agriculture Secretary Bernie Fondevilla. "This per-hectare yield average is higher than the 5.7-MT average of farmers who planted inbred certified rice seeds in some 93,000 hectares," he said. The yield of regular inbred rice varieties is 4 to 5 MT per hectare, the department said. Malabanan said that the hybrid seeds helped farmers realize P30,000 in profits per hectare from P15,000, when they were planting regular seed varieties. “Over the past three decades, the technology has helped China achieve food security, but it has not yet reached its potential in the tropics," he said. "Hybrid rice technology can raise the yield of rice, and thus overall rice productivity and profitability in Asia." The F1 variety is the first generation of hybrid rice produced by the cross-pollination of two plants with superior qualities, the department said. —VS, GMANews.TV