STAND ASIDE HYBRID RICE, HERE COMES OPEN POLLINATED BSD-300

Hybrid rices are now the talk of the town with its potential to double and even triple the yields of rice farms. It is being promoted by Asian governments as the answer to the perennial problem of shortage. With the breeding perfected by a Chinese scientist several decades ago, hybrid rice seeds are now a monopoly of large companies mostly multi-nationals which saw mega income by cornering the production of seeds.

Hybrid rice seed production is a highly technical process that needs expertise. But the rewards are high because of the margin of profit. Even producing a mere 2 tons of rice seeds per hectare, a multi-natonal company can easily gross P400,000 per hectare every six months, more than what they can get from a hectare of export banana. Thus, large business jumped into the band wagon. The small farmer having limited expertise in hybridization will have no option but to buy the seeds being sold at exorbitant prices.

Hybrid rice seed companies claim a range of 9-16 metric tons of rice produced per hectare, while open pollinated varieties released by rice research institutions can barely reach seven metric tons at controlled conditions and much less under farmer conditions. Thus farmers are attracted to buying hybrid rice seeds because of the prospect of having higher yield that translate to higher income perunit of farm land.

What if farmers can grow their own open pollinated rice strains that can approximate if not out yield hybrid rice varieties? What if these rice varieties are not only high producers but have good eating qualities as well? The benefits are practically limitless! They will then get out from the clutches of large business selling hybrid rice seeds and they can produce their own seeds as well as sell to other rice farmers at a more affordable price. Hybrid seeds sold by multinational companies cost P3,000 per 15 kilograms or a whooping P200/kilogram. A farmer needs 15 kilograms of rice seeds per hectare. If farmers can produce their own they can under cut these commercial sellers at even half the price.

Comes now BSD-300, an open pollinated rice variety developed by Freddie Noriel of Nueva Ecija coming from Indonesia. Noriel painstakingly improved the original strain by selection and the

strain can now produce an average of 300 cavans per hectare maily due to its long panicles and large grains growing from a dense multiple tiller.

Planted like the hybrid seeds, meaning about 15 kilograms of seeds per hectare at one seedling per hill spaces about 25 x 25 centimeters, the strain is so vigorous that at maximum growth stage, the productive tillers practically crowd each other, even more densely than hybrid varieties.

I bought a few kilograms of seeds from a Manila dealer last February and it was only last June that we planted this at Brgy. Lapayon, Leganes because nobody was interested to lend or lease me their land in my home town. We simulated farmer conditions, meaning, sparingly applying chemical fertilizers at a rate of only 2 bags of 14-14-14 and one bag urea per hectare. The farmer cooperator also insisted not to use any chemical pesticide since he intended to mill the rice for their own consumption if we cannot sell the produce as seeds. For more than two decades now, my friend had been eating pesticide free rice.

The BSD-300 plants are now 45 days old and almost at panicle emergence stage. Comparing the growth so far with those of the neighbors, one can immediately notice the difference. The tillers of BSD-300 are twice as many and robust as the open pollinated variety. The leaves are wider and longer. The neighboring OP had already been sprayed 5 times with insecticide while the BSD 300 never got a single spray because the farmer never believed in pesticides as an option.

BSD-300 compares well with this hybrid rice variety

According to the developer, BSD-300 will mature at 105 days compared to most hybrids which mature in 120 days or so. We are now observing other parameters such as the length of the panicles and the number of grains per panicle. Also eagerly awaited is the ultimate indicator which is the actual yield in the 1,000 sq.meters which will simply be extrapolated ten times to get the yield per hectare. If Noriel is to be believed, this batch of BSD-300 will yield about 350 cavans per hectare, comparative if not better than any hybrid variety now being planted in the country.