AT LEAST 200 rice farmers in Barangays Codcod and Quezon in San Carlos City have received high-quality seeds from the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) through its Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) on September 2, 2021.

The City Agriculture Office facilitated the distribution in coordination with the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist at Barangay Codcod Covered Court.

PhilRice-Negros Occidental Director Gerardo Estoy Jr. said qualified rice farmers are listed under the Registry System for Basic Sectors Agriculture (RSBA).

They received two bags of 40-kilogram seeds for every one hectare of cultivated area and a maximum of six bags for those who have rice fields larger than 2.5 hectares.

Estoy added that RCEF has allocated P2 million for the seed program taken from tariffs of imported rice under the Rice Tariffication Law as a means to improve rice production.

Dina Genzola, officer-in-charge provincial agriculturist, said San Carlos City will receive 2,000 bags of certified seeds for 1,209 hectares.

Genzola said the provision assistance to farmers is one of the priority projects of Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson.

For her part, Ester Ruth Torreverde, agricultural program coordinator of the Department of Agriculture in Western Visayas, said certified seeds provided by the government can provide a 10-percent increase in production based on the results of their study.

Teocorlix Juwaton, chairman of Codcod Agrarian Reform Community Cooperative, said their rice yield increased since they used certified seeds.

He thanked the government for providing them free high-quality seeds and technical assistance as well as the new planting technologies and machineries which include rice reaper, rice planter, tractor, and turtle machine making their work faster compared to their traditional way. (PR)