Asia Pacific seed producers impressed with Phl hybrid rice achievement

A field study tour organized by over 50 member countries of the Asia Pacific Seeds Association (APSA) was very "impressed with the milestones achieved by the country in hybrid rice seeds production" as well as the close collaboration among the stakeholders in the hybrid rice sector, the Department of Agriculture's Rice Industry Development reported Thursday.

DA-RID Undersecretary Leo Sebastian said this is the first field study tour in the Philippines, which stemmed from the invitation by Dr. Frisco Malabanan, who is the current executive committee member from the Philippines and is now with the Masagana Rice Industry Development Program. He was a former chairman of the Special Interest Group on Field Crops (SIG-FC).

APSA is the largest regional seed association in the world with more than 600 members, according to its website.

Headquartered in Bangkok, APSA promotes sustainable agriculture through the development, production, and trade of quality seeds within, to, and from the Asia-Pacific region, and continues to maintain strong links with a number of key international organizations such as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the World Trade Organization. Heidi Gallant, executive director of APSA, provides more insights into what the association means to its members.

Its members represent the entire spectrum of the seed industry—both the public and private sectors—including national seed associations, government agencies, public and private seed companies, and associate members, which represent organizations outside of the Asia region.

The majority of its members are seed enterprises, including breeders, producers, distributors, retailers, exporters, and importers. Countries with the highest number of members are China, 20 percent; India, 19 percent; Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Japan with 7 percent each; and Thailand, South Korea, and Chinese-Taipei with 4 percent each.

Sebastian said, that of the 15 delegates that joined the just-concluded field study tour, three companies were from China and others were from India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

The APSA study tour was timed with the holding of the 16th National Rice Technology Forum of the private sector group, Rice Board, in Hagonoy, Davao del Sur — which showcased clustered demo farms of hybrid rice companies, soil nutrition companies, and digital companies involved in the rice sector, Malabanan said.

The delegates, according to Sebastian, were impressed how the Philippines could pool all seed production companies in one site (during the NRTF tour in Davao Sur), which Malabanan said was a result of the close collaboration between government and private companies.

They went to the seed facilities (from drying, cleaning, and sacking of seeds) at the site of SL Agritech in Lupon Davao Oriental. They had a whole day of farm visits to the farms of SL Agritech, Tao Seeds, Longping, and BioSeeds where they saw the actual parental lines (male and female) of the seed companies in their flowering stages.

Last Thursday, they participated in the 16th NRTF forum in Hagonoy, Davao del Sur where they witnessed 18 companies (each with more than a hectare) of currently standing palay crops (both hybrid and inbred) as well as soil enrichment producers and a company that promotes drones for direct seeding of palay seeds, fertilizers and pesticide application.

There, Sebastian added, the delegates were awed by the contiguous areas of planted farms by competing companies, which is rather inconceivable in other countries.

That same day, they visited the farms of commercial seed companies, Bayer Crop Science and SL Agritech in Barangay Ruparan, Digos City, and in Hagonoy, Davao del Sur. From here they visited the hybrid corn farms in Kapaling, Davao del Norte, and Tagum of Bayer Science and Syngenta Phils.

At the Bayer field visit, a 50-hectare integrated farm of a farmer that used to be planted with bananas before the pandemic had been converted into hybrid rice, corn, and high-value crops.

The participants who left the Philippines last Saturday, also visited a learning site by DA Agriculture Training Institution showcasing an integrated farming system — high-value crops, poultry, and dairy farm — as part of the farm diversification to further increase farmers' incomes.