Programs and Activities

Enhancing Biodiversity in Rice Fields


Yields in farmers' fields have in recent years declined, casting doubts on the ability of sustaining the productivity of intensive rice culture. ARF-Philippines, PhilRice, the province of Nueva Ecija, NGOs and IRRI initiated in May 2003 a collaborative field on deploying genetic diversity to increase productivity of intensive rice culture at Muñoz, Nueva Ecija and Candelaria, Quezon, doing field trials on biodiversity applications to rice production at 2 locations: Muñoz, Nueva Ecija and Candelaria, Quezon. The objective of this multilocation project is to achieve sustainable increase in rice yield through the use of genetic diversity. This on-farm project will evaluate the effectiveness of genetic deployment scheme i.e. interplanting traditional variety and high yielding variety. These trials will be undertaken for 2 cropping seasons. The project is funded by the Department of Agriculture- Bureau of Agricultural Research (DA-BAR).