Hybrid rice harvesting festival held in Lubao

LUBAO—The SL Agritech Corporation conducted the SL-8H Grand Harvest Festival at Brgy. San Pedro, Palcarangan here.

The site is a 250-hectare rice field planted with SL-8H Super Hybrid Rice Seeds.

Department of Agriculture Undersecretary for Operations Engr. Ariel T. Cayagan, represented Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel “Manny” F. Piñol, said that the Departmenr launched the “Masaganang Ani 200” program which aim to boost Philippine farms’ rice yiel to 200 cavans per hectare.

“Secretary Piñol wants one million hectares of farmland planted with hybrid rice at an estimated cost of P15 billion, or P5,000 per hectare, before the end of President Duterte’s term in 2020. Masaganang Ani 200 program should enable the Philippines to reduce and eventually stop rice importation, which is an economically and politically destablizing food strategy.” said Cayanan as he reads the message of Agriculture Secretary Piñol to the attendees

“As of now, we only have hybrid on less than 10 percent of our 4 million hectares of rice land. This year, we’ll have one million hectares for hybrid rice to achieve sufficiency. Without the program, the country runs the risk of a food shortage when rice exporting countries are hit by climate change and global prices shoot up. So we must improve farmers’ productivity. We don’t need to expand our area. We just need to improve technology. If we raise productivity by two tons per hectare, that will be two million tons from one million hectares, and we won’t need to import.” Cayanan continued

The event was also attended by Pampanga 2nd district Congresswoman Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Pampanga Governor Lilia “Baby” Pineda, Lubao Mayor Mylyn Cayabyab and SL Agritech Corporation CEO and Chairman Dr. Henry Lim Bon Liong.