Record palay harvest still unsurpassed

MANILA, Philippines - Farmer Severino Payumo’s hybrid rice record harvest of 345.6 cavans per hectare in 2009, remains unsurpassed to this day. It will take perhaps a year or more before someone can break or duplicate his impressive record in hybrid rice production which demands experience and know-how in hybrid seed technology.

Payumo’s recorded harvest of 345.6 cavans per hectare in 2009 easily won for him the grand prize in the Search for Hybrid Rice Highest Yielder initiated the same year by the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA) of Nueva Ecija and SL Agritech Corp. in cooperation with the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), National Food Authority (NFA), Central Luzon State University (CLSU), National Irrigation Administration (NIA) and the Department of Agriculture-Regional Field Units (DA-RFU).

The 77-year-old Payumo, a former barangay captain of Biliran in Cabanatuan City, eclipsed the performance of his fellow hybrid rice farmers in the province – Ricardo Buenaventura of Tabacao, Talavera and Severino Velasquez of Sta. Rita in Jain, whose per hectare production was 266 and 230 cavans, respectively.

Payumo broke the 2006 record of 345 cavans per hectare harvested by lady farmer Aida Badong of San Nicolas, Camarines Sur who also used the same SL-8H super hybrid seeds variety of SL Agritech.

Michael Lumas-i, also a hybrid rice farmer from Sitio Tannulubong in Tabuk, Kalinga, was the grand winner of the 2010 “Gawad Saka” award given by the DA which recognized his outstanding achievement in hybrid rice production (255 cavans per hectare), poultry, piggery, fishery and high value commercial crops.

Among the country’s top hybrid rice producers are Eduardo Policarpio of Nueva Ecija, 315 cavans per hectare; Narciso Bermudez of Bangued, Abra, 296 cavans; Freddie Dalisay, Oriental Mindoro, 291; Dominador Mariano, Tarlac, 256; Alfredo Domingo, Isabela, 260; Ramil Jimenez, Occidental Mindoro, 258; Ronald Macalma, Ilocos Norte, 251;  Michael Viduya, Pitogo, Rizal, 250; Edward Importante of Occidental Mindoro, 236; Julio Jocson, Oriental Mindoro, 229; Leoncio Balasbas, Zamboanga del Sur, 217; Hilario Lacaste, Pangasinan, 214; Marino Fugata, North Cotabato, 210; Rogelio Penticostes, Pangasinan, 210; Crispin Sunio, Cagayan, 208; Willie Dulay, Tarlac, 207;  and Feliciano Biagan of Pangasinan, 205 cavans per hectare.