GOVERNMENT subsidy to hybrid rice farmers cannot be scrapped at a time when the program is still taking off, Frisco Malabanan, the director of the Department of Agriculture’s rice production program, said.
Malabanan`s statement is a reaction to a study done by state-run Philippines Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), which said that government support to the hybrid rice program must be slashed since state-subsidy has failed to ensure the viability of the program.
