THE Philippines would do well to take a cue from China, which has been able to produce enough rice to feed its more than 1 billion population through massive planting of hybrid rice, said SL Agritech Corp. chairman Henry Lim.

In an interview, Lim said expanding farmlands planted to hybrid rice will boost the Philippine government’s efforts to achieve self-sufficiency in rice production and, at the same time, boost the incomes of farmers.

“We hope the government will continue promoting this technology which has enabled China to become an exporter of rice, despite the fact that it has a population of more than 1 billion,” said Lim.

Rice is considered a staple food in China, as well as in other parts of Asia, including the Philippines.

In the 1950s Lim noted that famine was widespread and scores of people died because of hunger.

“China was a laggard in terms of rice production during those times. But the government’s massive investment in the farm sector has enabled China to produce more food and feed its population,” he said.

The Chinese government, Lim said, turned to hybrid seeds developed by Yuan Longping in the 1970s to turn around its rice production.

The hybrid-rice seed enabled rice farmers to post yields of more than 20 percent versus the traditional varieties. By the 1990s rice production in China went up by 47.5 percent.

Lim said the Philippines can achieve the same in rice production.

“There is a lot of room for growth for hybrid-rice production in the Philippines,” he said, noting that only 300,000 hectares out of the 4.2 million hectares have been planted to hybrid rice.

At a minimum yield of 6 metric tons per hectare, planting hybrid-rice seeds to an additional 400,000 hectares of farmlands will enable the Philippines to produce an additional 2.4 million metric tons (MMT) of palay, or 1.56 MMT of milled rice.

The additional production represents the usual volume imported by the Philippines from Asian countries such as Vietnam and Thailand to plug its production shortfall and for beefing up its buffer stock.

SL Agritech Corp. is one of the three major producers of hybrid-rice seeds in the local market today.

THE Philippines would do well to take a cue from China, which has been able to produce enough rice to feed its more than 1 billion population through massive planting of hybrid rice, said SL Agritech Corp. chairman Henry Lim.

THE New York-based Citi Group, one of the world’s largest financial-services firms, said the Philippines deserves more credit than Moody’s Investor Services has given it.

THE Japanese government and the national government are poised to operationalize the Philippines Water Revolving Fund (PWRF) that will allow local government units (LGUs) and government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) access to official development assistance (ODA) loans, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).

MALACAÑANG’S wish for early ratification of the Japan Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (Jpepa) ran into another obstacle Wednesday after three senators voiced doubts on the legality of a proposal by foreign relations committee chairman Sen. Miriam Santiago for the Senate to vote for conditional concurrence to the controversial treaty.

DAVAO CITY—Swedish Ambassador Inger Ultvedt advised the Philippines to make governance transparent and accountable and put a brake to the sending of too many talented people abroad.

HAGATNA, Guam—The Guam tourism office on Tuesday urged mayors from the Philippines to promote a two-way traffic for tourism between the Philippines and Micronesia by encouraging Filipino travelers to consider the region as their destination.

THE slowing world economy and rising inflation will be the major hurdles that Philippine businesses will deal with in 2008. This, according to Samie Lim, president of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) who spoke at the launching this week of the book  Whither the Philippines in the 21st Century in Makati City.

CEMENT literally is a major “building block” both of the ancient and modern times.

The  Assyrians and Babylonians used cement in the form of clay, and the Egyptians advanced to the discovery of lime and gypsum mortar as a binding agent for building structures such as the pyramids.