ILOILO CITY — Farmers belonging to the Sinibaan Farmers Association in Dingle, Iloilo are now producing Korean rice, following the successful trial facilitated by the Western Visayas Integrated Agricultural Research Center (WESVIARC) in Hamungaya, Jaro and the Korean Program International Agriculture (KOPIA).
Dingle Municipal Agriculturist Marfe Quinlat on Monday said their municipality, being a rice-producing town, is chosen as benefactor of the three-year program that was supposed to end in December 2017, but has been extended for another three years.
Of the more or less 10 Korean rice varieties that were tested, only “Milyang 23” has prospered.
Quinlat said the “milling recovery is good and the eating quality, especially, is very good”.
During the second cropping season, the Sinibaan Farmers Association was able to produce five metric tons from the 20 hectares planted with the said variety. However, its production is not competitive with the local variety, which is between seven to eight metric tons.
The second cropping season started from August to September 2017. Harvest began from November of the same year.
With the high production, farmers were able to penetrate the Korean market, especially that they have Korean partners in the city, Quinlat said.
Also, they were able to penetrate the Boracay market frequented by Korean tourists.
Last week, another variety — MS 11 — now registered as NSIC 170, was planted by the Sinibaan Farmers Association.
In addition to th rice varieties, KOPIA also provided the association with equipment and other farm implements.
On March 13, a PHP1.1-million worth of farm machineries and implements were released to the association, including a mechanical riding-type rice transplanter.
Since 2015, Dingle has also been consistently sending farmers to Korea to attend training. (Perla Lena/PNA)
