Philippines

General Information

· Main climates: Tropical Wet, Tropical Wet and Dry

· Total land area: 29 817 000 ha

· Internal renewable water resources: 323 km³

· GNP per capita, 1998: PPP$ 3 725

· Main food consumed: Rice, Sugar & Honey, Wheat, Roots and Tubers, Oil & Fat

· Rice supply, 1999: 149.5 kg paddy/capita/year

Basic Statistics

Producing Zones and Cropping Seasons

The Central Luzon and Cagayan Valley are the largest rice producing regions. The following table shows the rice-harvested areas in different producing zones.

The rainfall distribution in the northern and in the southern parts of the country is different. While it is the rainy season in the north, it is the dry season in the south. Consequently the rice cropping seasons are different as shown in the following table

Production Practices

The following figure shows the harvested areas from different rice ecologies during the last five years.

Rice-Rice system is widely practised in irrigated areas. Rice-Onion-Rice, Rice-Garlic-Rice, Rice-Mungbean-Rice systems are popular in Ilocos Norte region, Rice-Maize, Rice-other crops systems are practised in rainfed lowland areas, especially in the southern parts of the country. The Sabog Tanim or direct seeding to dry soils at the beginning of the rainy season is used to enable the Rice-Rice system under rainfed condition. The Dapog seedlings were first developed and used in the Laguna province. Land preparation is done either with animal traction or with small machinery/tractors. Transplanting is still the main method of crop establishment in lowland rice production, but broadcasting or line-seeding of germinated seeds to wet soils have been increasingly adopted by farmers. Direct seeding is used for crop establishment of upland rice. Large number of high yielding varieties (HYV) have been developed and released for cultivation since 1970.

· Irrigated rice varieties

· Rainfed lowland varieties

· Upland varieties

At present, IR64 is widely planted. Milagrosa a traditional and popular lowland variety. Recently hybrid rice programme has released three of 3-line hybrid varieties, namely PSB Rc26H (Magat) in 1994, PSB Rc72H (Mestizo) in 1997 and PSB Rc76H (Panay) for cultivation. Weed control is done either manually or with herbicides. IPM is widely practised. Harvesting is still done mainly by hand but most of the threshing is done with small to medium size mechanical threshers. Following table shows the responses of rice to fertilizer.

Constraints and Issues of Sustainable Production

• The typhoons, which frequently visit the country, cause flash floods.

• Rice Tungro virus, bacterial leaf blight and blast.

• Green leaf hoppers, stem borers are rice black bug

• Golden snails damage rice crop at early phases.

• About 600 000 ha have adverse water and nutrient conditions.

• About 100 000 ha are saline, 10 000 ha are alkaline; 15,000 ha have peat soil; and 50 000 ha have acid sulfate soils.

• Low economic return from rice production.

The following table shows the rice production costs.

In 1999 and 2000, the harvested area reached 4 million hectares, indicating a substantial potential for increasing rice production by expansion of harvested rice area. The modest improvement in rice yield during the last 5 years also suggests the possibility of narrowing the yield gap for production increase. The sustainable rice production in the country, however, requires appropriate policy, especially with regard to pricing of rice and tax incentives on investment in rice development and industry.

Research and Development Institutes

· Agricultural Training Institute Eliptical Road, Diliman, Quezon City Phone: (632)-928-7397 Fax: (632)-920-9792

· Bicol Rice and Corn Experiment Station Dept. of Agriculture, San Augustin Pili Camarines Sur

· Bohol Experimental Station Gabi Ubay Bohol

· Bureau of Plant Industry 692 San Andres Street Malate Manila Phone: (02) 571726 Fax: (63-2) 521-7650

· Cagayan de Oro Seed Testing Laboratory Bureau of Plant Industry Cagayan de Oro City Cagayan Phone: (08822) 726475

· Cebu Seed Testing Laboratory Estancia Mandaue City Cebu Phone: 54203

· CIADP Seed Testing Laboratory Bureau of Plant Industry Iguig Cagayan

· Davao National Crop Research & Development Center Bureau of Plant Industry Bag O'Shiro, Davao City Mindanao

· Department of Agriculture Economic Garden Seed Testing Laboratory 3720 Los Banos Laguna

· Ilagan Experiment Station Ilagan Luzon

· Iloilo Seed Testing Laboratory Department of Agriculture, Region No. 6 Hamungaya, Jaro Iloilo Phone: (033) 70032

· International Rice Research Institute; P.O. Box 933 Manila; Phone: (02) 884869 Telex: 45365 RICE PM Fax: (63-2) 817-8470 Email: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>

· Ipil Experiment Station Minagri Ipil Zamboanga del Sur

· La Granja National Crop Research & Development Center Bureau of Plant Industry P.O. Box 20 K-516 La Granja, La Carlota City Negros Occ.

· Leyte Seed Testing Laboratory Bureau of Plant Industry Babatngon Leyte

· Mandaue Experiment Station Bureau of Plant Industry Region 7 Mandau City Cebu

· Midsayap Seed Testing Laboratory Midsayap North Cotabato

· National Food Authority, Matimyas St., Quezon City, Philippines

· Occidental Mindoro Seed Testing Laboratory San Jose Occ. Mindoro

· Philippine Rice Research Insitute, Maligaya, Munoz, 3119 Nueva Ecija. Tel 63 44 4560112. Fax 63 44 4560112. Email: [email protected]

· Romualdez Experiment Station Babatngon Tacloban, Leyte Visayas

· University Central Luzon State Munoz Nueva Ecija

· University of the Philippines at Los Banos Institute of Plant Breeding 3720 College Laguna Phone: (094) 50104