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Earlier this month the government of Bangladesh announced a large increase in the amount of hybrid rice seed that would be allowed to be imported. If this 11,500 tonnes of seed is imported and sown in farmers' fields, it will cover between 1.2-1.5 million hectares-- about 30% of the entire rice crop. The government says the move is designed to secure the coutnry's food security, but, in a new report, the non-governmental organisation (NGO) UBINIG says that the government is merely pandering to the interests of the seed companies and, what is worse, putting the country's food supply at risk with an unproven technology.

The UBINIG report charges that the government did not investigate last year's experiences with its large-scale promotion of hybrid rice before deciding to increase the seed imports. Through its own research, UBINIG found that in the last boro rice growing season bacterial leaf blight emerged in an epidemic form in the areas where hybrid rice was grown and that the hybrid rice varieties appeared to be more susceptible to the disease than the local varieties. Experts interviewed by the NGO
said that the low quality of the hybrid rice seeds and the imbalance of fertility of the soil were major causes of the disease outbreaks and urged the Government to compel the seed companies to pay proper compensation to the affected farmers.

The imported hybrid rice seeds cost three times more than conventional varieties and just a few companies are registered for permission to import these seeds. They include Supreme Seed Company, ACI Seed, Syngenta and the micro-credit NGO BRAC.

UBINIG is now calling for the aggressive commercialisation and promotion of hybrid rice to be stopped immediately and for the government to conduct a thorough environmental, ecological and economic performance evaluation of hybrid rice.

"It is clear that aggressive promotion of Hybrid rice is not based on its yield potential as it is often claimed, but purely geared to create a hybrid seed market controlled by a few companies," says UBINIG. "Hybrid seed companies supported by a few NGOs are literally dictating the Ministry of Agriculture."

"Tall claims" about hybrid rice in India

Meanwhile, next door in India, hybrid rice is also coming up well short of seed company promises. Amrita Chaudhry, writing for Expressindia, reports on how the efforts of the Punjab State government to promote cultivation of hybrid rice are falling apart as "the farmers have found that these 'so-called' high-yielding varieties are actually giving a harvest much less than the conventional ones."

She says that the "tall claims on yield potential made by the companies have not translated on the fields."

According to Surinder Singh, who owns Brar Seed Farm, next to Punjab Agricultural University, “Hybrid rice was quite popular in Punjab at one time. We sold 40 to 50 quintals of hybrid rice seed each year. However, over the last few years, claims of a yield of 35 to 40 quintal per hectare have fallen flat.”

“We sell the Monsanto varieties of hybrid rice seeds and going by the response from the farmers, we will not be able to see more than 4 quintals of seed this season,” says Brar.

“The yield of hybrid rice is on a par with that of the normal varieties," says Balwant Singh, a farmer from Khanna, Punjab. "So rather than buying the expensive hybrid seed that costs Rs 200 per kg, we prefer the PAU 201 [conventional variety] that costs Rs 20 per kg.”

Bangladesh: When seed companies dictate ag policies