To improve farmers’ hybrid rice technology adoption, the Department of Agriculture in Davao Region (DA-11) has developed a 500-hectare model Community Hybrid Rice Clustered Demonstration Farm (CHRF) in three Davao de Oro municipalities for the wet cropping season.

In an interview Monday, DA-11 alternate rice focal person Jacinto Macoy Jr. said the demo farm which is located in the towns Nabunturan, Maragusan and Compostela will benefit some 500 farmers in the province.

He said the project intends to generate data that would promote the adoption of recommended hybrid rice varieties, technologies and management practices and showcase the clustering approach for production, harvesting, processing and marketing.

“We already established three demo farms, the other two are in Davao del Norte and Davao del Sur. The three demo farms are expected to help more than 1,000 rice farmers in the three provinces,” he pointed out.

Macoy added that they partnered with private seed companies and the local government units to ensure that the farmers will employ the recommended rice production techniques necessary to boost their “palay” production volume.

With an expected yield of seven metric tons (MT) of rice per hectare, the Davao de Oro demo farm will produce 3,500 MT in the harvest season.

“We push for the hybrid rice production since hybrid rice farmers have reported harvesting 7 to 15 MT per hectare, higher than the average 3.6 MT per hectare for inbred seed,” Macoy said.

Under the CHRF, farmer associations received a total of 1,500 bags of hybrid rice seeds, 10,500 bags of fertilizers and technical and marketing support.

“Seeing the high potential of hybrid rice seeds to increase their yield and income through the project, a lot of farmers then were encouraged to plant hybrid rice seeds in the area,” he said. (PNA)