There is enough rice by 2013-PhilRice

By Jason de Asis

CABANATUAN CITY, Nueva Ecija, April 1, 2011-A former executive director of Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) said that the country could hit its goal of producing enough rice with the innovations and initiatives on research, development, and extension (RD&E), which contribute 40 percent to rice self-sufficiency.

Ronilo A. Beronio said at the PhilRice Central Experiment Station that technology components and other social aspects are well-covered by the RD&E concerned and he is optimistic that the accomplishments in rice R&D during the past 25 years are now fruitful.

Beronio challenged the RD&E sector highlighting varieties, machines, and farming practices such as Palayamanan and PalayCheck that were developed, tested, and improved to suit farmers’ needs, the three-day event also produced outstanding studies in best paper and poster presentations.

Under the theme Strategies to mitigate impacts of and adapt to climate change, and other emerging problems besetting the rice industry PhilRice, Engineer Arnold S. Juliano’s paper, Development of a mobile ricehull gasifier engine-pump system, won the best paper award. 

To help farmers reduce production cost and minimize the environmental hazards of rice hull, the local gasifier system, which is compact, mobile, and affordable, was developed, where under the theme Socio-economics, impact assessment, policy, and market, Enhancing rice productivity and self-sufficiency in Romblon (Phase 1) of Leonardo A. Gonzales from STRIVE foundation, was adjudged best paper.

After project implementation, the farmer beneficiaries across the Location Specific Technology Development (LSTD) project sites in four municipalities illustrated marked improvements in terms of yield, efficiency in farm and wholesale level costs, net farm and wholesale incomes, food subsistence and poverty level carrying capacities, rice self-sufficiency, and global competitiveness.

A study using cellphone-based survey forms for PhilRice field data collection presented by Arturo C. Arocena Jr. from PhilRice, won the best paper award under the theme Technology promotion and delivery for narrowing the yield gap.

Arocena said that cellular phone-based survey forms can deliver structured datasets that can either replace or integrate with the existing paper-based process. 

DA-PhilRice is a government owned and controlled corporation that aims at developing high-yielding and cost-reducing technologies so farmers can produce enough rice for all Filipinos. (Jason de Asis)