The  multi-billion additional funding for rice and several other crops is a welcome development, but we disagree with how the government plans to spend it. Going through the components of the package, dubbed FIELDS, it is clear that the intention is to increase the hectarage devoted to hybrid rice production, with an allocation of P2.7 billion until 2010. We find this difficult to understand given the poor performance of the hybrid rice program and the many issues that have been raised against it over the years.

As it is currently designed, the P43.7 billion package of intervention measures will merely perpetuate the misguided strategies that have turned us into the world's biggest rice importer. Furthermore, in subsidizing hybrid rice, we are subsidizing big seed companies like SL-Agrictech, including multinationals like Bayer and Monsanto, when we should be using that money to support our own rice farmers. The design of the FIELDS interventions will actually make the rice program dependent on private companies with no accountability to the public.

Equally disturbing is hybrid rice's heavy reliance on chemical-based inputs to reach optimum yields. With the sky-rocketing prices of inorganic fertilizers which now stand at P1,700, hybrid rice production will only force rice farmers deeper into indebtedness, even as the big fertilizer companies reap windfalls of profit. All of this is on top of the damage to the environment that chemical-based farming, as shown in numerous studies, will certainly cause. 

When will we ever learn? The fact that we are facing a crisis right now is clear evidence that the old strategy of putting all our eggs in one basket, i.e., dumping the lion's share of resources into the expensive and flawed hybrid rice program was a huge mistake. In fact, the contribution of the hybrid rice, which has received billions of peso in government support, to rice production pales in comparison to the over 50 percent contribution of good seeds, a sector that has been receiving practically no support from government. And yet, again, we hear all this talk of increasing funding for rice hybridization.

The government's only rationale for insisting on hybrid rice is the supposed yield advantage it has over traditional and other inbred varieties. Yet, in the field, farmer-selected and bred seeds have been shown to be comparative if not superior to hybrid rice which has an average yield of 7 metric tons per hectare. According to some studies, yields from good seeds and certified seeds can reach a maximum of 9 mt/ha and 10 mt/ha respectively. Using the latest rice hectarage of 4,272,000 hectares, we can assume that the country can produce as much as 38,448,000 million metric tons of palay or 29,904,000 metric tons of milled rice using only good seeds. This is even assuming a low milling recovery of only 60 percent.

Actual field experience with farmer developed varieties also show that yields of up to 7 mt/ha. are achievable using organic farming practices. This compares favorably to the less than 6 mt/ha. average yield for hybrid rice. Rice farmers who employed the system of rice intensification managed to produced yields reaching as high as 9 mt/ha. Moreover, the small rice farmers have been reporting milling recovery rates of 70 percent which is much higher than that registered by hybrid rice. What is even more notable is that the small rice farmers were able to achieve this level of production without government support. Strangely, government has not tapped the expertise of these organic rice farmers.

Clearly, by simply providing farmers with good seeds, promoting organic rice farming and constructing additional irrigation facilities, government could set the country on the road to self-sufficiency in food production. Needless to say, government would do well to abandon its current policy track of relying on hybrid rice or even entertaining rice imports as solutions to ensuring the availability of food. Instead, government should pursue the implementation of the Rice Master Plan that the small rice farmers have long been advocating.