by Jerome Carlo R. Paunan
The rice seed propagation project is part of the Department of Agriculture (DA) national rice program which aims to enable farmers produce their requirement of certified seeds every cropping season.
The program, which forms part of the national food staples sufficiency program, empowers organized farmers’ groups and cooperatives, including Irrigators’ Associations (IAs), to produce their own certified or inbred rice seeds out of the registered rice seeds that will be distributed to them for free.
To qualify under the seed propagation project, farmers’groups should commit a seed production area of at least one-half hectare or 5,000 square meters (sq m) for lowland irrigated area, or at least one-fourth hectare or 2,500 sq m for uplands.
Farmer-beneficiaries must also train on the basics of rice seed production, and other related community seed bank (CSB) operational matters.
Director Dante Delima, who heads the program, said farmer-beneficiaries are required to pay back in kind, which will serve as their buffer seed stock.
The repayment scheme is 1.5 kilos (kl) of certified seeds for every 1 kl of registered seeds borrowed — for those who wish to pay in full; or two kl of certified seeds for every one kl of registered seeds borrowed — for those availing of a ‘plant-now, pay-later scheme.'
The collected certified seeds will be stored by their respective groups or IAs at a designated CSB and will be used in the next cropping season with the farmer-depositors as priority beneficiaries.
For additional details you may contact DA national rice program coordinator Delima at cellphone no. 09178695698
Source: http://www.pia.gov.ph/?m=1&t=1&id=62770
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