The Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (GMA) hybrid rice program of the Department of Agriculture (DA), cited Saturday the need to intensify its information program to increase farmers’ understanding and awareness on the potentials of hybrid rice.

Dr. Frisco M. Malabanan, GMA national coordinator, said his office will continue to promote the technology to help boost the country’s efforts to achieve self-sufficiency in rice production.

“But there is still a lot of room for growth for hybrid rice at ang isa rito ay ang malawakang pagpapalaganap sa media ng nasabing teknolohiya,’’ he said.

He said here are still a big number of farmers who have not chosen to plant hybrid rice.’’

“Ang ilang dahilan ay kulang sila ng wastong kaalaman sa tunay na kapakinabangan sa pagtatanim ng uri ng palay na ito, marami pa ring kritiko ang patuloy na naninira sa magandang programang ito ng DA, at mayroong ilang magsasaka na nakapagtanim na ng hybrid ngunit hindi nakapag-ani ng sapat dahil na rin sa hindi sinunod ang tamang paraan ng pagtatanim na nasabing palay,’’ Malabanan said.

He said the GMA has focused its efforts on the expression of farmlands planted to hybrid rice, noting that only 100,000 hectares out of the 4.2 million hectares have been planted to the high-yielding rice variety.

“The use of hybrid seeds has tremendously increased our palay production by 1.47 metric tons (MT) per hectare, with per hectare yields hitting 6.01 MT against the 4.5 MT average produce by farmers using the inbred rice variety,’’ Malabanan said. Citing data from the Bureau of Agriculture Statistics (BAS) and the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) he said farmers’ income also doubled when they used hybrid seeds.