SAN FERNANDO CITY, July 29 (PIA) – The Department of Agriculture-Regional Field Office 1 (DA RFO1), in collaboration with the Philippine Rice Board, Provincial Government of Ilocos Norte and the municipality of Bacarra, kicked off a rice techno forum program to showcase the production technologies of new high-yielding rice varieties in Ilocos.
 
DA RFO 1 Executive Director Nestor Domenden said the project is the 15th National Rice Techno Forum that will culminate in the second week of September this year.
 
The project aims to boost the effort of the Marcos administration to achieve a “Masagana 200” goal, which is to target 200 cavans of rice per hectare production in the coming harvest seasons.
 
On July 6, at least  300 farmers, agricultural extension workers, representatives of the private rice seed companies, and other agri-stakeholders visited the 120-hectare demonstration farm for the rice techno forum project in  Barangay Cabaruan, Bacarra, Ilocos Norte.
 
The demo farm showcases various farming technologies for the production of the 28 hybrid rice varieties and two inbred varieties in the area which could be adopted by farmers in their farming activities.
 
The farm demonstration project involving 247 farmer-cooperators also showcases different cultural management practices on rice production such as mechanical or direct seeding, and drone seeding as well as nutrient management like the “abonong swak” recommendation.
 
Domenden said the project is in line with the priority program of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. on increasing rice production and at the same time lowering the rice price to make it available and affordable to every Filipino family.
 
Reicher Ondap, the Philippine Rice Board president, encouraged other farmers to adopt the technologies showcased in the demo project to improve their productivity. (JCR/AMB/FGL, PIA 1)