DA -10 conducts FFS on Plant Breeding and Seed Rehabilitation on Rice

The Department of Agriculture through the GMA Rice Program conducts Farmer Field’s School (FFS) on Participatory Plant Breeding and Seed Purification & Rehabilitation on different rice varieties at Opol , Misamis Oriental.

                The FFS ( Farmer’s Field School) is a discovery and participatory based learning where farmers are given inputs regarding Plant Breeding and from their  learnings they are asked to cross-breed different kinds of rice variety they want from other rice varieties in the study area for the attainment of their breeding objectives like: adaptability to local conditions or suitability to the local climate, tolerance to major pests, tolerance to drought, good grain quality, tolerance to lodging or tolerance to physical damage and those varieties that has good palatability or taste. With these breeding objectives in mind they will actualize what they have learned in the FFS on plant breeding. They can cross-breed existing varieties to create new varieties which has a more enhanced or improved quality than that of the parent varieties. The farmer who has successfully created or produced new variety is given the privilege to name the new variety after his name.

                Aside form plant breeding techniques introduced to these farmers they were also taught how to multiply rice seed varieties in their locality. These seed varieties are those which thrives best in their locality. This is part of the response to the government’s Seed Rehabilitation Program. This program aims to teach farmers to be self-reliant by teaching them how to produce their own rice seeds for their planting consumption rather than receiving mainly on the government for rice seed subsidy. This Seed Rehabilitation project under the FFS is in coordination with SEARICE (Southeast Asia Regional Initiatives for Community Empowerment). SEARICE is a regional development organization that promotes and strengthens the conservation and sustainable utilization of agricultural biodiversity in partnership with farmers and farming communities in the Philippines and other South East Asian nations. The FFS on Plant Breeding and Seed Rehabilitation has for its project cost of P30, 000. The 15% of the cost was shouldered by the LGU concerned, P10,000 from SEARICE and P15,500 form DA-10. ( Suzy May A. Roa)