By Othel V. Campos

Leading hybrid seed producer SL Agritech said it will do away with the government subsidy program in the next planting season after figuring in a recent controversy over the supply of defective seeds, company president Henry Lim said yesterday.

?We already have that level of confidence to go on our own. We believe that the seed subsidy program, for all its worth, did its job to help educate farmers on the benefits of using hybrid seeds,? Lim told reporters during the opening of the 8th Philippine Food Expo at the Megatrade Hall in Megamall, Mandaluyong City.

Some farmers in Nueva Ecija complained of stunted growth from the SL Agritech?s SL-8H variety, commonly referred to as Dinorado. SL Agritech said it blamed the extreme cold condition in the area and not poor quality seeds for the abnormal growth.

?That was the first time we heard our seeds did not perform well. We?ve been supplying the government for more than five years now under the hybrid seed subsidy program and none of these things happened until now,? Lim said.

The SL-8 variety is known to be better performing than most inbred varieties, with a 33 percent increase in yield.

The company supplies 60 percent of the hybrid seed requirement of farmers who avail of the seed subsidy program of the Agriculture Department. It is the biggest hybrid seed producer in the country with seed farms in China, India and Indonesia.

The hybrid seed company manages a 40-hectare hybrid rice research center in Barangay Oogong in Sta. Cruz, Laguna, a 700-hectare hybrid rice seed production area in Lupon, Davao Oriental and another 100 hectares in Tabuk, Kalinga.

Other companies that are also accredited to supply hybrid seeds are Bayer Crop Science, BioSeed Research Philippines, HyRice Corp., Syngenta Philippines and cooperatives that produce public sector hybrids.

The government is keeping a partial seed subsidy for hybrids at P1,500 per bag for 200,000 hectares in the 2008-2009 dry planting season.

SL Agritech, meanwhile, will export 200 metric tons of SL-8H hybrid seeds to Bangladesh in August.

SL Agritech and Mukleur Rahman, chairman of Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corp., recently signed a memorandum of agreement.