About two million bags of 20 kilograms each of certified seeds under the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund are set for distribution to rice farmers this year.
The Agriculture Department said the seeds could be planted on 1 million hectares of rice land. Agriculture Secretary William Dar said this would help increase palay yield to six tons per hectare in high-yielding provinces by 2024.
Among the rice seed varieties for distribution are NSIC Rc 160, Rc 216, Rc 222 and two location-specific inbred varieties.
“So far, we have identified 57 provinces based on the size of area harvested, yield level, cost of production and share of irrigated area. These municipalities and cities must also have an annual area planted of more than 500-ha for dry season 2019-2020,” he said.
Farmer-beneficiaries are those listed in the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture. Each farmer is allowed to obtain seeds for two consecutive cropping seasons until December 2020.