Aklan to expand hybrid rice prod'n

Kalibo , Aklan — Determined to propagate provincewide hybrid rice production ,   the provincial government of Aklan through its Office of the Provincial Agriculturist has targeted some 1000 hectares for commercial production of F1 rice variety and another 200 hectares for seed production of A&R variety for the next wet cropping season.

Since assuming the governorship in July last year ,   Aklan Gov. Carlito S. Marquez promptly anticipated the need to maximize rice production in the midst of rapid population growth in the province and the reduction of effective hectarage of farms devoted to rice.

Marquez conceptualized hybrid rice production and for the last cropping season last year ,   piloted 30 hectares for A&R variety for seed production and 40.58 hectares for commercial production of F1 variety.

These pilot farms are all located at the Pacto de Sangre Agrarian Reform Community in New Washington, Aklan .   These were initially funded by the provincial government to a tune of P1 million with counterpart funding from the municipal government of New Washington of P100,000,   Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Aklan of P60,000 and the Regional Field Unit of the Department of Agriculture in Region VI of P200,000.

In the hybrid rice pilot farm for commercial production ,   rice produce is projected to double to 200 canvans per hectare from Aklan's traditional baseline production of 100 cavans per hectare or less.

On employment opportunities ,   the pilot hybrid farm can generate a total of 6,000 mandays per cropping for seed production and another 4,058 mandays per cropping for commercial production.

Aklan is self-sufficient in rice production and even ships out its surplus rice produce to deficient provinces like Negros and Cebu .

However ,   during the past decade,   Aklan rice production had been erratic reaching a peak of 124,000 metric tons in 1996 and continuously declined reaching a low 86,000 metric tons in 2003.   Last year's annual production was 100,300 metric tons.