The Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) has been working on approximately P350-million worth of rice research and development (R&D) projects including grants from Indonesia and Japan in its mandate to add value to rice farming and to aid in rice sufficiency goals.

The grants, which come from agencies like Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and European Commission (EC)- ASEAN, signal significant support of international community to research on rice, apparently the world's most important food crop.

Among the grants with the highest value involve P12.756 million from the EC-ASEAN Energy Facility of Jakarta, Indonesia which is for "Enhancing the Energy Self-Sufficiency of Rice Mills" and P13.5 million from JICA for rice based farming systems training and support for the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao.

However, much of the R&D projects still came from the national government particularly for the Hybrid Rice Commercialization Program since 2003 amounting to more than P300 million from which PHilRice has established its track record for breeder and foundation seed production.

Leocadio S. Sebastian, PhilRice executive director, said PhilRice has been able to get hold of a considerable amount of grant by making sure that its project proposals for grants match with the major programs of government.

Government agencies like PhilRice normally encounter bottlenecks in the approval of their grants when these don't have the counterpart funds to match foreign funding which is a usual requirement by project screening agencies like National Economic Development Authority.

"We don't have problems in counterpart funds because we propose projects that are already part of our program," said Sebastian in an interview at the sidelines of the Farmers' Field Day at PhilRice's Nueva Ecija research center.

PhilRice is able to provide the counterpart fund through the subsidy it receives from the national government which totaled to P240 million in 2006.

Now the country's premiere state-owned R&D agency that has given birth to technologies like Mestizo hybrid rice, "Palayamanan," and Rice Check, PhilRice has been able to get a P4.605 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for the beta carotene, Vitamin E and Iron and Zinc-Enhanced genetically-engineered rice.

"You have to build credibility, you need to earn foreign donors' trust," Sebastian said.

From FAO, PhilRice's project is the P2.5 million development of Integrated Crop Management for Food Security.

Its collaboration with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) are on Enhanced Development-Dissemination of Hybrid Rice Technology, P482,939; Technology Transfer in Water Saving, 691,600; development of direct seeding and weed management, P110,000; survey on farmers' acceptability of rice biotechnology, P327,947; and yield trial on new plant type and direct wet-seeded rice, 154,000.

It got a P2.34 million grant from the University of Western Australia for Herbicide Use Strategies and Weed Management while from RC Hawaii, it is for Decision Aids for Integrated Soil Nutrient Management, P2.17 million.

From Virginia Polytechnic Institute, its collaboration is on Stakeholder Empowerment on Integrated Pest Management (IPM), P1.1 million.

Other grants are from AIT Thailand, Briggs and Stratton, rice equipment and technologies, P557, 453; EVS Holding Ltd., North Vancouver, Efficacy of Canadex Activated Copper Complex against Golden Apple Snail and Bacterial Blight, P299, 816; and Kansai Corp of Japan for testing of Automated Carbonization System.