Rice farmers in Iloilo—the rice granary of the Visayas—expanded their average output to 10.71 metric tons (MT) per hectare using the the SL-8H seeds from SL Agritech Corp. (SLAC).
Some 10,000 hectares in Iloilo are planted with hybrid-rice seeds, according to SL Agritech.
Despite the severe El Niño, Iloilo remains to be a rice surplus province, especially as farmers ventured into SL-8H hybrid rice that sent yield average to 4.09 MT per hectare.
This is an overall increase of nearly 1 MT (0.86) per hectare compared to the 2015 average of 3.23 per hectare (based on the Philippine Statistics Authority) for the entire Iloilo, according to Asst. Provincial Agriculturist Elias V. Sandig Jr.
The trend to plant hybrid rice in Iloilo intensified as a farmer registered a high yield last year.
“In 2015 Marilyn Duco of Patlad, Dumangas, obtained an average yield equivalent to 14.51 MT per hectare [from SL-8H hybrid seeds] at 14-percent moisture content,” Sandig said.
Along with the use of good hybrid seeds, Iloilo farmers adopted what is realized now as a superior fertilization technique—Crop Stand Fertilizer Management.
“An honest to goodness campaign was made to accept SL-8H with instruction to adopt Crop Stand Fertilizer Management. A total of 10,000 hectares [of hybrid area] was realized,” Sandig added.
Applying fertilizer based on crop stand means that fertilizer is applied in reduced amounts. It is applied only when the color of rice plant is light yellow, signifying a need for fertilizer.
“To date, the 12 top SL-8H farmers had an average production of 10.71 MT per hectare, equivalent to 9.713 MT per hectare at 14-percent moisture content,“ Sandig said.
“Iloilo farmer Teresita S. Setiar of Leganes reaped the highest yield equivalent of 17.921 MT per hectare at 14-percent moisture content. She used organic fertilizers with reduced artificial fertilizer,” he added.
Sandig noted that Iloilo has pioneered on a provincial level the cultivation of hybrid rice using organic fertilizer.
“Suffice to say that it is only in Iloilo where hybrid rice is grown organically,” he said.
What is auspicious for some Iloilo farmers with the favorable development on the use of hybrid rice is those that plant only once a year are now able to harvest as if they’re planting two seasons a year.
“Some areas are just rainfed, so farmers don’t plant during the dry season. But with their high yield—double from hybrid rice—it’s as good as they would have planted two times a year,” said Rich Recoter, SLAC hybrid-rice specialist.
From his rainfed 6,000-square-meter farm, Andres Corras Jr. got this last wet season an equivalent of an average of 9.68 MT per hectare.
Allan Tabefranca got a yield of 8.5 MT per hectare from 8,000 square meters. He is in an irrigated area and even used direct seeding, which means he had lesser cost compared to if he transplanted seeds.
“Our campaign is that using the same technology of rice planting, you just change the seed, but your expense is the same. The seed is for free, so they get a higher income. Because of this, they have been convinced to go into hybrid,” Iloilo Provincial Agriculturist Ildefonso T. Toledo said.
With the proper fertilization management, hybrid rice in irrigated areas in Iloilo as of October produced 4.77 MT per hectare. This average is higher by 1.28 MT compared to the July-to-September 2016 inbred average yield of 3.491 MT per hectare.
The use of hybrid rice has been traditionally avoided by farmers in the wet season due to the prevalence of infestation by bacterial leaf blight (BLB). But fertilization based on crop stand has apparently eliminated severe BLB infestation problem.
“It’s the first time for many farmers to plant hybrid in the wet season,” said Geron E. Magbanua, also of the Iloilo provincial agriculture office. “And [impressively] there are farmers who harvested 10 tons [per hectare] as shown by the contest [Palayabangan introduced by the Philippine Rice Research Institute].”
Iloilo is 141-percent sufficient in rice. This is computed as follows: At 60-percent milling recovery, a total of 526,845,600 kilos of milled rice will be processed. With a population of 1,805,576 and per-capita consumption of119 kilos per person, there will be a total milled-rice requirement of 214,863,544. The milled-rice production is 141 percent of the milled-rice requirement.
The province has a total of 135,964 hectares of rice lands consisting of 48,860 hectares of irrigated ricelands, 85,779 hectares of rainfed rice lands and 1,325 uplands devoted to rice. There are 110,000 rice farmers.