Rice variety adoption in the Philippines

Understanding the adoption of rice varieties is important because it provides indication to the sustainability of the rice production growth in the future. Plant breeders can justify the continuous breeding and release of varieties as a means to promote genetic diversification. In addition, information on rice variety adoption can provide basis for decision making of researchers, extension workers and local policy makers in their research and development activities. Given this, the study tried to assess the adoption of rice variety in the country. Specifically, it aimed to describe varietal adoption trend, present the reasons for variety adoption, measure variety turnover of farmers, and provide policy recommendations. The study used the Rice-based farm household survey (RBFHS) cross-section data covering 1992-93, 1996-97 and 2001-02 crop years. Descriptive statistics are used to analyze the data. Results showed that enduring 1980s varieties are IR64, IR60 and Burdagol while the most popular varieties from 1992-2002 are PSB Rc18, PSB Rc10, PSB Rc28, Masipag, PSB Rc14 and Burdagol. The reasons for using a variety are high-yielding, good grain quality, availability, resistant to pests and diseases, and early maturing. Result also showed that despite the high rate of release of new varieties, the aggregate measure of replacement period of rice varieties is around 8-11 years. This reflects not only the lag between varietal release and the initiation and the speed of adoption, but also the superiority of new varieties over the old ones. Moreover, there are accounts of adoption just after the release of a new variety but the wide spread adoption is not until 5-7 years from release as in the case of the popular PSB Rc varieties. The speed of farmers in adopting new varieties and sustaining adoption largely depend on the variety performers in the farmers' field