BONTOC, Mountain Province - New rice varieties will soon be made available in the landlocked locality of Mountain Province after a group of farmers successfully came out with three new types using locally grown varieties and those provided by the Department of Agriculture (DA).
Some 25 farmers from various barangays (villages) in Mountain Province with the assistance of technicians from the local agriculture offices of the South East Regional Initiative for Community Empowerment (SEARICE) actively joined the over one-year participatory rice breeding program before coming out with the new rice varieties to be produced in the province.
Mountain Province Gov. Leonard Mayaen underscored the importance of scientific programs as they empower farmers in the countryside to be more productive in lieu of the growing population that translates to increase in the demand for rice.
The three rice varieties found by the local farmers are still being given their respective names by the concerned government agencies before the same will be distributed for mass production.
As this developed, Mayaen is elated that local farmers are continuously learning something that will help them improve the quality and quantity of their agricultural produce, particularly rice, in the coming years.
To address the fears of some residents, experts vehemently belied concerns that rice breeding will result to the extinction of native rice varieties.
Mountain Province is one of the producers of over 25 tons of native rice being exported to the United States (US) and Europe because of its unique aroma and lasting taste that is preferred by foreigners.
The production of native rice varieties is being advocated by the Regional Development Council (RDC) in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) in order to empower farmers to go back to the traditional and organic way of farming to ensure that their crops are good for the health of the people.
Mayaen encouraged farmers not to abandon the native rice production but instead try to inter-connect the same with the rice breeding program in order to be able to sustain the local government's effort to attain rice self-sufficiency in the coming years even if the province is mostly mountainous in character
