Embracing Hybrid Rice: Impacts and Future Directions

Hybrid rice production is one of the best options to increase farm productivity and income among the technologies available today. On-farm data shows that it can increase yield from 8% to 14% or at least 400 kg/ha when production function results were considered. Yield distribution also shows that there are more hybrid rice farmers achieving 5 t/ha and above than inbred rice farmers. Hybrid rice has also price advantage of around 30 centavos per kg over the inbred rice. This shows a good market acceptability of milled hybrid rice due to its good eating quality. The phenomenon is unique in the Philippines as price of hybrid rice in other countries are usually discounted because of poor eating quality. The combined yield and price advantage of hybrid rice are the source of income growth among hybrid rice farmers. Though production cost increased due to higher seed, fertilizer, and pesticide and labor costs, difference in cost per unit between hybrid and inbred rice production has narrowed as hybrid farmers become more familiar with the technology. As a result, the rate of return on additional peso investment of hybrid rice farmers is very remarkable at 88% in 2002 WS, which further increased to 393% in 2004 DS. Considering the real price for hybrid seeds and imputing it in the cost of production, hybrid rice production still demonstrates a substantial rate of return in additional peso investment, which is 26% in 2002 WS and 133% in 2004 DS. Aside from impacts on farm productivity and income, hybrid rice promotion also created sequential adoption of other component technologies in rice production that have been ignored in the past. On the national scale, government investments on hybrid rice commercialization have incurred financial and economic benefit-cost ratios of 1.56 and 1.13, respectively. These suggest that society's benefits from hybrid rice have outweighed the costs of the program. The estimated dollar savings from rice importation resulting from hybrid rice commercialization amounts to US$23.25 million. On the social side, hybrid rice adoptors professed improvement in their livelihood as a result of planting hybrid rice. They claimed that they became better providers and were able to buy new appliances for their households. In addition, they signified improvement in their confidence as rice farmers.