Philippines: MinDA taps Israel's technology to expand upland rice farm experiment

Mindanao has tapped a technology from Israel to expand its experiment of growing its irrigated upland rice farms. MinDA Chair Emmanuel Piñol said his agency recently led the establishment of 10 demo areas using Israel’s pressurized irrigation and fertigation technology as it continues to explore the potentials of upland rice farming in the Mindanao region. “With just a measly budget of P500,000 taken from its very limited funds, MinDA will work with Local Government Units, the Philippine Rice Research Institute [PhilRice], and a private rice seeds company, US Seedworks, for the project,” Piñol said. He then explained that using the Israeli technology on pressurized irrigation and fertigation, MinDA will introduce modern upland rice farming using hybrid seeds and the indigenous upland rice varieties. The demonstration farms will be about 1,000 square meters each and will be established in the traditional rice farming areas of Central Mindanao, Northern Mindanao, Davao Region, ...