Harvest Time

Hooked to Hybrid Rice SL 8H: I

By Sosimo Ma. Pablico

Hybrid rice could be addictive as in the case of a family in Tabacao, Talavera, Nueva Ecija who would plant nothing but SL Agritech hybrid rice varieties during the dry season.  

This family – the Serrano family – has decided to devote all its farms of no less than 100 hectares (ha) to the production of SL 8H, the first hybrid rice variety of  SL Agritech Corp. that was released by the NSIC [National Seed Industry Council].  And one member of the family has even dared to plant 9 ha with SL 7, a new SL Agritech line.

At the helm of the Serrano family is Solita Serrano, better known in Tabacao as Nanay Soling, who prides herself of having raised 11 children who are still alive. Eight of her children are working in Italy and have invested all their savings in irrigated rice lands in Tabacao. The eldest child, Remedios, was in Italy as a domestic helper for 15 years but has decided to come home for good.

Nanay Soling is already 75 years old, but she still manages more than 50 hectares (ha) of irrigated rice land, 17 ha of which belong to her. The rest are owned by her children in Italy. She relates that whenever a land was offered for sale, she had to buy it as long as she had money.  They had only 5 ha before her children went to Italy, but the size of the farm started to increase soon after the children began to send money back home.

When SL 8H was introduced in Tabacao, her late husband planted it in 15 ha in the 2004-2005 dry season. They harvested 140 to 150 cavans a hectare, which was higher than most inbred varieties. A cavan weighs 54 to 56 kilos depending on the size of the sack.

As they continued to get good yields from SL 8H during the dry season, unknowingly they were already hooked to this hybrid rice variety.  If possible, Nanay Soling would not want to plant any other variety during the dry season except SL 8H.

For Nanay Soling, a harvest of 160 cavans a hectare, which is her highest yield thus far, is already more than enough reason for her to continue planting SL 8H.

On the other hand, Carding Buenaventura, Nanay Soling’s son-in-law, is the foremost advocate and promoter of SL 8H in Tabacao.  In the dry season of 2004-2005 (December to April) when SL 8H was first planted in commercial scale in this barangay, Carding already had the biggest area (8.0 ha) planted to SL 8H.  Earlier, a techno demo of 1.0 ha conducted in his farm convinced him and other members of the coop about the bright prospects from this hybrid rice variety.

He harvested a total 1,440 cavans from the 8.0 ha or an average of 180 cavans/ha fresh from the thresher. Knowing from experience that hybrid rice could be attacked by bacterial leaf blight during the wet season, he only planted the variety in the succeeding dry seasons.

Encouraged by his initial success, he planted 8.0 ha again in the dry season of 2005-2006 with the new hybrid variety and harvested 1,470 cavans or an average of 184 cavans a hectare.  Very much contented with his harvest, he increased the area planted to SL 8H (10 ha) in the dry season of 2006-2007 and harvested a total 1,950 cavans or 195 cavans a hectare.

Always daring as he has always been, Carding even ventured to plant SL 7 during the 2007 wet season.  Carding could have been very happy with his harvest of 138 cavans a hectare if the crop did not lodge due to the heavy weight of the panicles.  Even with that, he was still contented with the yield.

Because of his high wet season yield, Carding thought that SL 7 might even perform better during the dry season.  Thus, he planted 9.0 ha with this hybrid line during the last dry season, while 6.0 ha were devoted to SL 8H production.  A cooperative weather proved him right with his decision to plant a large area with the still unreleased hybrid rice line for he harvested a total 1,549 cavans or 172 cavans a hectare.  The 6.0 ha of SL 8H gave him 1,150 cavans or an average 192 cavans a hectare.

Like what happened in the past after the SL 8H techno demo, many of the farmers in Tabacao are again riding in the SL 7 bandwagon with Carding who is their role model.                                       

To be continued.

(Readers may reach columnist at punch.sunday@gmail.com.For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/viewpoints/ For reactions to this column, click “Send MESSAGES, OPINIONS, COMMENTS” on default page.)