MANILA – Pangilinan-led Metro Pacific Investment Corp. and SL AgriTech Corp. will establish a 1,000-hectare hybrid rice area to help the Philippines achieve self-sufficiency in the P450-billion rice sector.

In a briefing, SL AgriTech Chairman Henry Lim Bon Liong said that they were now identifying initial target areas, through state-run Philippine Agribusiness Development Commercial Corp.

Dr. Frisco Malabanan, SLAC hybrid rice specialist, said that potential areas included Palawan, Occidental Mindoro, Iloilo, Negros Occidental, Zamboanga Sibugay, Davao del Sur, Compostela Valley, North Cotabato, and Sultan Kudarat.

SL Agritech will also provide the hybrid rice variety seeds together with the technical assistance, he said.

Lim said that MPIC had committed a preliminary investment of $10 million for the development of the country’s agriculture sector, which is one of core businesses of MPIC’s parent firm First Pacific Group.

The executive said that First Pacific operates some 1.5 million hectares of palm oil and rubber plantations in Indonesia, and expect the Hong Kong-based company to further increase investments in the Philippines.

But Lim said rice alone is already a big market with P450 billion value, excluding imported rice, which amounted to some 500,000 metric tons this year.

The partnership can even come up with a more globally-known rice brand that is Philippine-made, Lim said, much as how Thailand has given prominence to its fancy rice — Jasmine rice.

Malabanan said MPC had already tapped a consultant, the Mandala Devt. Corp., to study its agriculture investments.

SL AgriTech will start planting the areas once the PADCC identified the most suitable for the project.

The initial investment in the hybrid rice program will go to infrastructure — irrigation, farm to market roads, and post harvest facilities. The needed investment will depend on the condition of the land — whether there is already an existing infrastructure.

Previous government estimates placed cost for irrigation alone at between P400,000 to P600,000 and which may go up now to P1 million per hectare.

Lim said the partnership would also involve coordination with local government units, which could aid farmers through financing or some type of subsidy for hybrid rice.

However, in the absence of LGUs’ financial support, an already existing model in one LGU, Bohol, exists. In this business model, coordination is being made between farmers and traders-millers. The traders finance inputs of farmers, like seeds and fertilizer, and other assistance like insurance.

Traders, who are at the same time mill-owners, are also the buyers of the produce and are bound to pay farmers a premium price for the high-quality hybrid rice grains. At least a P1 per kilo premium on top of market price (P17 per kilo) is paid to farmers at the contracted price of P18 per kilo.*PNA

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