CABANATUAN CITY –Several farmers in Nueva Ecija are demanding reimbursement and damages from the company that sold them hybrid rice seeds that were defective and failed to grow properly.
Mario Imperio of the farmers’ group Bumalikat said many farmers in his village in Guimba town feared that they would not recover their expenses due to the stunded growth of their rice plants.
“They were expecting that their harvest would be very low because of the poor growth and development of their rice plants,” Imperio said.
He said the farmers were asking the Department of Agriculture to require the SL Agritech Corp., the firm that sold the seeds, to reimburse them.
They were also urging the DA to penalize the firm for supposedly short charging the government and the farmers in their agreement to supply good quality seeds to boost rice production under the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (GMA) program.
Imperio said the government paid P1,500 per bag of 20-kg seeds as subsidy. The farmers paid P2,500 for the seeds they acquired through their municipal agricultural offices.
But Serafin Santos provincial agriculturist of Nueva Ecija, said the farmers’ demand was too harsh and called it a “misplaced outcry.”
“They are no solid bases to say that the farmers who planted the SL-8 [hybrid rice] variety already suffered huge losses. In our monitoring, not one farm was found where all the plants flowered and produced grains prematurely,” he said.
“The situation in Nueva Ecija regarding the SL-8 rice plants was overblown,” he said. “The reports of the three teams monitoring the situation in the field showed that only 2 to 3 percent of the plants flowered and bore fruits prematurely.”
Santos said the farmers panicked when they saw some of their plants producing grains even though they were very young and they told other farmers about it.
“Word circulated that their plants were stunted and bore fruits prematurely,” Santos said.
He said some of the farmers, who saw some of their plants were flowering prematurely, destroyed their plants and planted another variety of rice.
Dr. Noel Mamicpic, SL Agritech vice president, said their findings, as validated by the monitoring team, showed that a small percentage of “off-type” seeds caused the problem.
“These off-type cannot be avoided. They mixed with the hybrids during production and post production,” Mamicpic said.
He said the production of hybrid rice seeds involved the crossing of three different parent plants.
Like in other seed production activities, a 100-percent genetic purity of the seeds is almost impossible to obtain, he said.
Mario Imperio of the farmers’ group Bumalikat said many farmers in his village in Guimba town feared that they would not recover their expenses due to the stunded growth of their rice plants.
“They were expecting that their harvest would be very low because of the poor growth and development of their rice plants,” Imperio said.
He said the farmers were asking the Department of Agriculture to require the SL Agritech Corp., the firm that sold the seeds, to reimburse them.
They were also urging the DA to penalize the firm for supposedly short charging the government and the farmers in their agreement to supply good quality seeds to boost rice production under the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (GMA) program.
Imperio said the government paid P1,500 per bag of 20-kg seeds as subsidy. The farmers paid P2,500 for the seeds they acquired through their municipal agricultural offices.
But Serafin Santos provincial agriculturist of Nueva Ecija, said the farmers’ demand was too harsh and called it a “misplaced outcry.”
“They are no solid bases to say that the farmers who planted the SL-8 [hybrid rice] variety already suffered huge losses. In our monitoring, not one farm was found where all the plants flowered and produced grains prematurely,” he said.
“The situation in Nueva Ecija regarding the SL-8 rice plants was overblown,” he said. “The reports of the three teams monitoring the situation in the field showed that only 2 to 3 percent of the plants flowered and bore fruits prematurely.”
Santos said the farmers panicked when they saw some of their plants producing grains even though they were very young and they told other farmers about it.
“Word circulated that their plants were stunted and bore fruits prematurely,” Santos said.
He said some of the farmers, who saw some of their plants were flowering prematurely, destroyed their plants and planted another variety of rice.
Dr. Noel Mamicpic, SL Agritech vice president, said their findings, as validated by the monitoring team, showed that a small percentage of “off-type” seeds caused the problem.
“These off-type cannot be avoided. They mixed with the hybrids during production and post production,” Mamicpic said.
He said the production of hybrid rice seeds involved the crossing of three different parent plants.
Like in other seed production activities, a 100-percent genetic purity of the seeds is almost impossible to obtain, he said.
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