SL Agritech’s Davao hybrid project approved by BoI
THE Board of Investments (BoI) recently approved SL Agritech Corp.’s P450 million project producing hybrid rice seed and palay to farmers.
The project will be located in Matanao, Davao del Sur. It hopes to sell 9 million kilos of hybrid rice seed and paddy rice of 1.6 million kilos to local farmers annually.
Commercial operations are due to start this month and the operation will employ around 7,000 people including farm workers.
The government has high hopes for hybrid rice technology, counting on it to help achieve self-sufficiency in the staple grain.
SL Agritech will use its own parent seeds in producing SL-8H hybrid rice seed.
SL-8H is the firm’s leading hybrid variety with a potential yield of at least 8 tons and a record yield of 17 tons per hectare.
Farmers from Vietnam, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Myanmar and Cambodia have adopted the SL-8H hybrid rice seed technology.
“Given the country’s limited land to expand the hectarage of rice production, using hybrid seed to increase farmers’ yields, rather than the conventional or regular seeds, is an excellent approach to further increase rice production,” the BoI said in a statement on Tuesday.
SL Agritech Corporation is the country’s leading producer of hybrid rice.
The company to date has three hybrid rice and hybrid seed production sites operating in the country — all registered with BoI.
These processing facilities are in Sta. Cruz, Laguna; Lupon, Davao Oriental; and Talavera, Nueva Ecija. —