A total of 1,008 farmers from the 13 villages of this city received free seedlings from the government on Friday, the City Agriculture Office (CAO) said.

In an interview, CAO chief Sheila Nas said the distribution of seedlings held at the CAO building in Barangay Gogon started on May 6 and will last until May 24.

The recipients are those who are registered in the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture (RSBSA), she noted.

“The distribution materialized when the CAO received 700 bags of National Seed Industry Council (NSIC) and 500 bags of certified inbred seeds from the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) under the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Program (RCEF) of the Department of Agriculture (DA). The palay seedlings would be planted in their rice fields, with each beneficiary with one hectare receiving 40 kilos of seedlings,” Nas added.

She said the CAO distributes free palay seedlings and fertilizers twice a year to help the farmers as a regular city government program.

Nas said the NSIC 222 seedlings given to the farmers could grow in the wet and dry seasons, and it is also applicable to plant in the two consecutive cropping cycles that will produce a good quality harvest of whole grain rice.

“Majority of the farmers were interested in the inbred certified seedlings as their planting materials because of their less consumption of fertilizers but with a very good quality of palay harvest while the hybrid palay seedlings have a very high consumption of fertilizers and sometimes have broken grains,” she added. (PNA)