Secretary Arthur Yap of the Department of Agriculture (DA) has kicked off nationwide celebrations marking Rice Awareness Month with an array of activities in the top rice-producing province of Nueva Ecija, including leading the harvesting of hybrid rice in the Science City of Muñoz.

Yap also led the inauguration of postharvest facilities given by the DA to the Bagong Buhay ng Mabini Multi-purpose Cooperative-a model hybrid rice cluster-in Mabini, Sto. Domingo and awarded certificates of acceptance of various postharvest facilities like flatbed dryer, rice mill, moisture meter, rice thresher, manual harvester and platform balance to several other farmer cooperatives in the province..

The recipients were clusters or irrigation associations (IAs) from Mabini as well as from Maragol and Franza in Science City of Muñoz; Tabacao in Talavera; and Sto. Tomas in San Jose City.

Yap also visited one of the irrigation systems being restored by the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) in the province.

As part of the activities marking the month-long celebration, the Philippine Rice Research Institute conducted seminars and distributed reading materials to farmers, along with extension kits to rice extension workers to equip and empower them in their respective areas.

President Arroyo has issued Proclamation Order 524 declaring November as Rice Awareness Month in the Philippines.

"This month-long celebration aims to highlight the invaluable contribution of rice farmers to the country's food security," Yap said.

All activities lined-up this month are meant, he said, to promote awareness of the significant value of rice farming in the everyday lives of Filipinos.

Yap said the hybrid rice commercialization program (HRCP) under the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (GMA) rice program of the DA aims "to address the gap between production and consumption while at the same raising the incomes of rice farmers by making this agricultural activity much more profitable for them in the long run."

Given this, he said the GMA rice program has been working aggressively on the expansion of hybrid rice areas as production areas planted to hybrid rice and the national average yield have significantly increased ever since the HRCP was introduced at the start of the Arroyo presidency.

"For the previous 12 seasons from 2001-2007, hybrid rice varieties have recorded a yield advantage of 33% more than those of inbred certified seeds," Yap said.

He added that DA is working on various information campaigns regarding the adoption of hybrid rice as an advanced technology in rice production.

For now, the Department is actually heightening the promotion of hybrid rice as well as the clustering approach focused on the IAs down to the barangay level, he said.

To minimize postharvest or drying losses, Yap said the DA has been providing postharvest drying facilities to farmers' cooperatives or IAs in the 37 major rice-producing provinces in the country.

Also, flatbed dryers with rice hull-fed furnace are being put up so that farmers can have access to low-cost drying technology, he said.

One more component of the DA's promotional program, he said, is linking up farmer co-ops and clusters with markets so they can sell their producers to a greater number of consumers at reasonable or more affordable prices.

Yap pointed out that the stepped-up restoration by the NIA of irrigations systems, provision of postharvest drying facilities, promotion of high quality genetic materials or further expansion of the total hybrid rice area, are in support of the Arroyo government's goal to attain self-sufficiency in food staples and making farming and fishing highly profitable, especially for small stakeholders like palay growers and fisherfolk.