Indonesia: High times for hybrid rice companies

Back in 2005 the Director of Cereals in the Ministry of Agriculture, and now also Secretary General of the National Rice Council,  Maxdeyul Sola, boldly stated that a million hectares would be planted to hybrid rice in Indonesia within four years. It was a strange target to set given the persistent failure of researchers in both the private and public sector to produce hybrids with a yield advantage over conventional varieties. Recent data compiled by Indonesian researchers shows that hybrid rice still yields no more than conventional varieties under optimal conditions and that it suffers from poor eating quality and susceptibility to important pests and diseases like brown plant hopper and leaf blight, not to mention the problem of its high price for seeds. No wonder farmers are continuously rejecting it. In some parts of West Java, farmers also complain about the poor selling price of hybrid rice, particularly the Intani variety, compared to inbred varieties like IR77.

But undeterred, this past January, the new Minister of Agriculture, Anton Apriyantono, announced a new major programme to push hybrid rice.  According to the plan, over 135,000 ha of prime rice land will be converted to the production of hybrid rice during the upcoming season. To meet this target, the government will provide some 2,000 tons of free hybrid rice seed to farmers. Tempting it may seem, but these free hybrid rice seeds are not like the varieties that Indonesian farmers are used to. Seed from a hybrid rice crop cannot be saved and planted teh following year, forcing farmers to buy new seed the next season, and the season after that, and so on!

Most of the seed will have to be imported, because, at present the domestic supply is insufficient. Anton says that around 1-1.2 thousand tons of hybrid seed will be imported from China, the Philippines and India. This is a big policy change. Previously imports of seed were limited to small amounts for experimentation or the development of seed stock, in part because of concerns that big imports could easily bring in unwanted rice pests and diseases.

But now the government seems to be prioritising the interests of seed companies. The new hybrid rice scheme is little more than a direct subsidy to the hybrid rice seed business. Anton told reporters that local government units will buy the seeds from private companies through open tenders and will then be reimbursed by the central government. He says that the central  government would only set a ceiling price for the seeds, even though he refused to reveal that amount and declined to tell reporters how much this scheme would cost the central government.

The government's announcement follows on a wave of corporate activity in Indonesia's rice seed sector. Major multinationals like DuPont, Monsanto, Bayer, Mitsui and Syngenta now have hybrid rice varieties on the market.  German-based Bayer launched its new hybrid rice variety, Arize Hibrindo R-1, in Indonesia just a month before the central government announced its new hybrid rice scheme. Minister Anton was a featured guest at the event. Some local companies, often in cooperation with foreign companies, are also active in the hybrid rice seed market, such as PT BISI, notorious for its harassment of farmers over seed saving.

The Chinese are aggressively developing a presence in Indonesia's hybrid rice market as well. Yuan Longping High-tech Agriculture sells its Yuan Longping II variety through an exclusive license with local seed company Pt Bangun Pusaka. On December 15, 2006, Minister Anton announced that within the next six months Indonesia and China would establish a Hybrid Rice Research Center in Indonesia. He made the announcement during the signing of a memorandum of agreement between China's Guo Hao Seed Company and local seed company PT Sumber Alam Sutera and the Indonesian Institute for Rice Research for the commercial development of Guo Hao's hybrid rice.

This renewed push for hybrid rice in Indonesia extends over the entire Southeast Asian region. The Philippines government, after signing multi-billion dollar biofuel production agreements with China, recently announced that it was backing down from its plan to remove subsidies for hybrid rice production. In Malaysia, powerful local entrepreneurs have put hybrid rice back on the country's agenda. It's clear why the seed industry refuses to give up-- hybrid rice could turn the rice seed market into a goldmine. And, for the multinationals, its their key entry point for the introduction of GM rice. But hybrid rice has yet to show any advantages or even potential advantages for farmers in the region. Despite decades of R&D and renewed corporate investment, decent hybrid rice seeds remain elusive. The old technical problems have not been adequately resolved. This is the real reason why the Indonesian government has to import seed and foot the bill to get hybrid rice into farmers' fields.

What an absolute waste of the country's scarce public resources!

Riza Tjahjahdi of Biotani Foundation Indonesia generously helped with background research for this blog entry.