THE field day of the 100-hectare Provincial Hybrid Rice Technology Demonstration Farm of the Department of Agriculture (DA) for Central Luzon was successfully held in collaboration with various private hybrid seed companies.

The event was also in partnership with the Provincial and Municipal Local Government Unit of Tarlac and the AMIA Cruz Farmers Association and was held on March 1 in Barangay Cruz in Victoria town in Tarlac.

The purpose of this program is to promote the use of recommended hybrid rice varieties, innovative technologies and management practices.

It also shows the clustering approach for production, harvesting, processing up to market.

This means that the government can work with farmer groups with the private sector until they sell their rice harvest.

The Department joined in the activity six seed companies which include SL AgriTech, LongPing, SeedWorks, Bayer, Syngenta and Corteva who also served as consultants to the farmers in their planting of hybrid seeds.

Meanwhile, the AMIA Cruz Farmers Association from Victoria, Tarlac served as the cooperator comprising 29 farmers.

Apart from hybrid seeds they were also provided with free farm input fertilizer which greatly helped them to lower the production cost.

The DA's target for the implementation of this program is from Central Luzon, the provinces of Nueva Ecija and Tarlac, which provide the best hybrid rice yields.

According to Regional Seed Coordinator Christian Ramos, the hybridization program will continue as it helps to increase productivity in terms of rice production.