Henry Lim, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of SL Agritech Corp., said yesterday there is a need for the continuous education of farmers "to enable the country’s food resource keep pace with our fast-growing population."

Lim said new grains technology has started to modernize the farmer’s life and his continuous education on the use of modern farm methods and facilities would make him more receptive to the imperatives of growth.

"We believe that farmers, who are receptive in adopting modern farming technologies and practices, can truly increase their harvests and at least double their previous income," said Lim, who manages a 40-hectare research and development center for hybrid rice in barangay Oogong in Sta. Cruz, Laguna.

He said that while "we are all aware of the important role played by technology in our massive food production efforts, there is the apparent need for all of us to keep abreast with the various technological approaches and to continuously be in search of new and better systems towards increased productivity."

"Dapat ang ibayong pagtuturo sa ating mga magsasaka ng mga makabagong teknolohiya sa pagtatanim ng hybrid rice o hybrid corn para makatiyak tayo na hindi lamang natin matutulungan sila to uplift their conditions but we likewise believe, it could spell progress for our country," Lim said.

He lamented that while only about 10 percent of the country’s farmers are engaged in hybrid rice farming, "we can already see that there is a positive growth of our rice production in the last four years."

According to him, the area planted to hybrid rice is only 375,000 hectares which is less than 10 percent of about 3.9 million hectares of the country’s total rice farms.

"If we could raise this to at least one-half of the 1.2 million hectares of irrigated land or to 600,000 hectares, then our farmers will have the incentive to shift to hybrid and also then that the Philippines can be self-sufficient in the cereal," Lim added.