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Charoen Pokphand's seed subsidiary in Indonesia, PT Bisi International, says it plans to increase its profit by 50 percent in 2007, partly through the introduction of new varieties of hybrid rice. It's a move that certainly goes well with the Indonesian government's current drive to promote rice hybrids. Early in the year, Minister of Agriculture Anton Apriyantono, announced a major programme to utilise over 135,000 ha of prime rice land for the production of hybrid rice. Though hybrid rice seeds would, over the near term, have to be imported from neighbouring China, Philippines and India, because of a lack of domestic supply.

PT Bisi has been doing multi-locational trials of hybrid rice since 2002, often with farmers close to the company's facilities in East Java. Perhaps these trials clued them in to the good business opportunities flowing from hybrid rice's high dependence on agrochemical inputs? Last December, Bisi bought up PT Multi Sarana Indotani, a pesticide formulation plant that controls 8 percent of the Indonesian pesticide market and 3 percent of the fertiliser market.

Thai-based Charoen Pokphand, one of the largest agribusiness corporations in the world, is also investing in crop biotechnology research through PT Bisi. The subsidiary reportedly built a new biotechnology research laboratory in Sumbur Agong village in East Java. Bisi vice president Thomas Effendy says their research and development is aimed at producing seeds with high yields, disease resistance and adaptability to different agro-climatic conditions. Do we smell GM rice in the pipeline?

A few island hops away, SL Agritech, one of the major producers of rice hybrids in the Philippines (and a major supplier to the Indonesian market with 50 metric tonnes shipped to Indonesia this year and plans to ship 500 tonnes in 2008) says it is pursuing GM hybrid rice resistant to bacterial leaf blight, a pest that seriously reduces rice yields. It's president, Henry Lim Bon Liong, is positive that such varieties will be available to farmers in a year and a half or so. The International Rice Research Institute once had hopes of doing the same in the Philippines and several other countries, but, faced with strong local resistance, that project was shelved. However, early this year IRRI struck a new research agreement with Indonesia, including support for developing "improved rice varieties with high yield potential, grain quality, and resistance to pests."

Indonesia: Charoen Pokphand expands seed operations