TACLOBAN CITY- Not less than six metric tons of hybrid rice is expected to be harvested in this year's first wet cropping season, which ran from November 2003 to this month.

No less than 3,000 hectares of land have been planted to hybrid rice by around 1,500 farmers.

So far, this is the largest production target set by Governor Remedios Petilla and the provincial agriculture's office since they initiated the planting of hybrid rice in Leyte.

The expected hybrid rice harvest will largely come from the Leyte rice farmers who have been subsidized by the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the provincial government.

Under the program, out of the P2,400 worth of hybrid rice seedlings per cavan of 40 kilos, they were able to purchase the same for only P500 per cavan.

The DA assumed the payment of the P1,400 while the provincial government settled the P500 counterpart, leaving the balance of P500 to be shouldered by the farmers.

Compared to the ordinary certified rice seeds that are commonly available to majority of rice farmers in the province, which is cheaper at only over P600 per cavan at local market prices, hybrid rice seeds produce more grains to provide higher incomes for farmers.

Hybrid rice seedlings, albeit not available universally in the market, has 200 percent higher productivity compared to that of certified rice seeds.

At 20 kilos per cavan, the hybrid seeds could cover one hectare of riceland.

The certain yield is not less than five metric tons.

Ranged against the usual 40 kilos per cavan of certified rice seeds, its productivity is 40 percent higher than the three metric tons of rice produced for certified seeds.

According to assistant provincial agriculturist Rogelio Portula, the rate of rice sufficiency in the province is significantly increasing.

In fact, statistically, the rice sufficiency level has now reached over 90 percent.

However, a significant volume of the rice produced in the produce end up being purchased by traders from other provinces and even from Luzon owing to the better prices they offer to farmers.

Many rice farmers and traders are inclined to market their produce elsewhere since they earn more profit from these transactions.

To further ensure the supply of hybrid rice seeds, Governor Petilla and the provincial agriculture's office are now into the initial stages of developing a technology that will mass produce the hybrid rice seeds through massive breeding.

Petilla and other officials are also looking into some ways of reducing the cost of the hybrid rice to make it compete better with the yield from certified rice seeds in the local market.