Agriculture.ph Blog

The value of research in agriculture has much more far-reaching impact than what most of our budget allocators must be thinking.

Otherwise, they would be budgetting more than what they are providing now.

Despite the limited budget allocation, though, our agricultural researchers have been coming up with improved crops, technologies and systems that make agriculture more profitable.

Fortunately, the private sector is also contributing much to the improvement of agriculture through research. And they are apparently alloting more for research. Dr. Mary Ann Sayoc of East-West Seed Company, for instance, says that their company is allocating 14 percent of their revenue for research. That is a lot more than the percentage of the gross domestic product (GDP) being alloted to research by the government.

Of course, the product of research is benefiting a lot of our farmers. In the case of hybrid vegetable seeds, for instance, every peso that the farmer spends on seeds, the return is 30 times. That’s the report on the hybrid patola seed developed in Thailand and now grown in the Philippines. The same could be true with other hybrid vegetable seeds.

With the development of outstanding hybrid seeds, the vegetable industry here can be turned into a P50-billion industry, according to Simon N. Groot, chairman of East-West Seed Company. In an exclusive interview with him, he said that it will take only 200,000 hectares devoted to vegetables to make that a reality. With the improved seeds, farmers can easily gross P250,000 per hectare. That’s equivalent to P50 billion, he explained.

It could be much more. Some farmers growing hybrid vegetables are grossing much more than P250,000 per hectare.

Written by Zac Sarian

Source: www.mb.com.ph