PhilRice Los Baños, in collaboration with the municipal agriculture office of Lemery and the DA-Lipa City, is establishing a Palayamanan site in Noong Casto, Lemery, Batangas.  Farmers in the area had been inappropriately planting NSIC Rc 216, a variety for irrigated lowlands, despite the high sulfur or salinity levels in their soils. The farmers rely on rainwater for irrigation, which has dragged down their yields to less than 3t/ha. To […]

To ensure relevant, timely, and science-based technological promotions, DA-PhilRice is set to release an updated version of the PalayCheck System for irrigated lowland rice by 2025. The revision is spearheaded by the Technology Management and Services Division (TMSD) through the conduct of extensive consultations and workshops with researchers, technical staff, and trainers from various fields across DA-PhilRice’s CES and branch stations. This initiative improves the overall effectiveness of the platform […]

Dr. John C. de Leon took his oath for a second term as the PhilRice Executive Director on July 29, 2024. Initially appointed by former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte in 2019, Dr. de Leon  has been instrumental in aligning the Institute’s initiatives with the PhilRice Strategic Plan and with the Department of Agriculture’s overarching objectives. His leadership is pivotal in achieving record-breaking palay production outputs in both 2021 and 2023, […]

Amid a decline in the number of young Filipinos entering rice farming, the Department of Agriculture-Philippine Rice Research Institute (DA-PhilRice) has launched new initiatives to spark interest in agriculture among students.  By involving the youth aged 10-12 in planting the Institute’s rice paddy art this wet season and by establishing a new compact site called RiceSpark, Dr. Karen Eloisa T. Barroga, DA-PhilRice deputy executive director for development, emphasized the importance […]

Rice Business Innovations System (RiceBIS 2.0) This continuing program is geared at developing rice and rice-based enterprises to address farmers’ needs in a resilient and sustainable manner, ensuring available and affordable rice. The initial RiceBIS program has introduced business innovations through three components: product, process, and market innovations. Product innovation improves the quality of rice and rice-based products and enhances service provision of farmer cooperatives and clusters by helping them […]

Scaling Modern and Adaptive Rice Technologies for Prosperous Farming Communities (SMART Farm) This is a new program that concentrates on innovating rice farming systems through the development of cutting-edge climate-resilient technologies in the whole value chain. These will address yield gaps, location-specific constraints, and data-use efficiency to maximize the quantity and quality of rice and, thus, ensure the availability and accessibility of nutritious, balanced, and safe rice and rice-based diets […]

Rice Seeds Systems (RSS) The Rice Seeds Systems Program targets improving and ensuring a sustainable and vigorous seed supply chain in the country, and ensures that high-quality seeds of the preferred rice varieties will be produced in sufficient quantities in a timely manner. The seed production components expected to deliver rice seed sufficiency are: inbred seed production and hybrid parentals/F1 seed multiplication; the resulting high-quality rice seeds are for distribution […]

With the increasing advocacy to educate the youth about agriculture, the Department of Agriculture-Philippine Rice Research Institute (DA-PhilRice) and Kiwanis International-Philippine Luzon District unveiled a compact educational campsite called RICEsParK, established to help cultivate the next generation of agricultural leaders. The initiative, launched today, seeks to inspire young “RICEponsible” leaders who are aware of the challenges faced by Filipino farmers and the importance of rice and rice science to the […]