Google News - Thu, 2012-04-19 08:09

Cambodia will soon get hybrid rice seeds from the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) for mass cultivation.

Sources at the Department of Agriculture (DA) revealed on Monday afternoon that Cambodia relies on traditional variet¬ies and does not use synthetic fertilizers and the introduction of PhilRice hybrid rice seeds would raise its current av¬erage rice output at 2.5 metric tons (MT) per hectare.

The average Phil¬ppine rice output is 3.74 MT per hectare. However, Cambodia has a population of about eight million but its rice growing area is about the same as that of the Philippines.

Agriculture Sec¬retary Proceso J. Alcala said that Cambodia is willing to supply part of the country’s rice require-ments at prices much better than those offered by Thailand and Vietnam.

Philippine Confederation of Grains Association (Philcongrains) president Herculano Co. said many Cambodian farmers rely on Vietnam rice mills to process their palay.