Agriculture Secretary William Dar signed Tuesday an agreement with top seed growers’ associations and cooperatives in the country to ensure the supply of high-quality inbred rice seeds under the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund Seed Program.
“Yes, RCEF is now rolling out and October 1 is such a milestone for this program as we are now set to distribute two million bags of high-quality inbred rice seeds to our rice farmers,” Dar said during the signing.
Two million bags of seeds, each containing 20 kilos, will be planted to around one million hectares of rice land, and will benefit one million rice farmers in the country.
Among the seed groups that signed with the department were Pangasinan Organic Seed Growers and Nursery Multi-purpose Cooperative, Isabela Seed Growers Multi-purpose Cooperative, Nueva Ecija Seed Grower Multi-purpose Cooperative, South Nueva Ecija Seed Growers Multi-purpose Cooperative, and West Visayas Federation of Multi-Purpose and Seed Producers Cooperative.