PhilRice helps IPs conserve traditional rice varieties

By Allan Biwang Jr.

PhilRice

The Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) is assisting the indigenous people (IP) in Sarangani to protect their traditional rice varieties (TRVs).

“We have been waiting for this move from the government to conserve our traditional varieties. The entire IP community fully supports this project,” expressed Celito C. Terando, provincial government project manager of Sulong Tribu.

As Sarangani is one of the areas most vulnerable to drought, preserving the seeds is important in breeding new climate-change ready seeds for the area. Blaan, Tagakaolo, Tboli, Manobo, Ubo, and Kalagan tribes live in its upland areas where they plan most of the TVRs.

Starting this year, the locals and PhilRice’s genetic resources team will collect, conserve, survey, and document the varieties in a project, “Conservation of Sarangani Traditional Rice Germplasm (SaTRice).” The team will also evaluate the grain quality, level of resistance to pest and diseases, and level of tolerance to drought or submergence stress.

Jess Bryan Alvariño, project staff, said the farmers noted the TRVs resistance to pests and drought. They also produce good yield even without fertilizer and pesticide intervention.

Mr. Alvariño also said Sarangani has no records of germplasm collection in the PhilRice Genebank. Germplasm are genetic materials used for breeding new rice varieties.

“As Sarangani has a significant number of estimated [107] TRVs [with unique traits], it is our foremost initiative to conserve and protect all their rice germplasm,” he said. Phil Rice will use the results from the ident cation and testing of the TRVs to recommend the best variety suited in the province. They will store high quality TRVs at PhilRice Genebank, which houses more than 5,000 Philippine TRVs and more than 16,000 germplasm collections.

Based on the study conducted by Mindanao State University-Gensan, they identified 107 TRVs with unique traits in the area.

PhilRice expects to gather more comprehensive data on morphological and molecular profiles of TRVs, specifically those that pertain to size, shape, and structure of seed components.

Farmers, mostly indigenous people (IP), can also utilize these data in adding value/price to their varieties if they decided to commercialize it.

Other than conservation and characterization, the said project also aims to establish and strengthen community-based seed banks for IP communities in partnership with the Provincial Government of Sarangani and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples.