SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union – The Department of Agriculture (DA), through the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), is distributing a total of 621,988 sacks of hybrid palay (rice) seeds and 86,017 sacks of inbred seeds in the Ilocos region.
In a phone interview on Wednesday, DA 1 (Ilocos) officer-in-charge Technical Director for Operations Erlinda Manipon said the total number of hybrid seeds covers 125,000 hectares of land in the region, while the inbred seeds cover 86,467 hectares.
Pangasinan farmers were allotted 363,188 sacks of hybrid rice; La Union farmers, 47,100 sacks; Ilocos Sur farmers, 62,100; and Ilocos Norte farmers, 149,600 sacks, Manipon said.
For the inbred seeds, Pangasinan farmers were allocated 37,382 sacks; La Union farmers, 12,137 sacks; Ilocos Sur farmers, 23,998 sacks; and Ilocos Norte farmers, 12,500 sacks, she added.
“Generally, all rice farmers enrolled in the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture. But it still depends on the list submitted by the local government units consolidated by the Office of the Provincial Agriculture,” Manipon said.
She said the number of sacks each farmer receives depends on the land area of his field and the type of seed the farmer plants.
“The hybrid seeds’ packaging is about 15 kg. to 20 kg. per sack and each hectare of land needs 15 kg. For the inbred, each sack contains 40 kg. of seeds and each hectare needs one bag or 40 kg.,” she added.
The seed distribution is part of the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) Seed Program.
The DA will also distribute inbred and hybrid rice seeds with fertilizers to both rain-fed and irrigated areas on top of the RCEF and support to inbred and hybrid farmers under the National Rice Program. (PNA)
