A RANKING official of the Department of Agriculture (DA) on Tuesday admitted that the target of rice self-sufficiency in two years is not feasible, contradicting the earlier statement of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

In a radio interview, Agriculture Undersecretary Leocadio Sebastian said that rice sufficiency between 95 and 96 percent is more viable in 2025 with the increase in land planted to hybrid seeds.

'The target of rice self-sufficiency is good, but we need to balance it. Otherwise, the farmers will be affected if there is an oversupply. That is why our target is between 95 and 96 percent sufficiency, to ensure better farmgate prices for our farmers,' Sebastian said.

He added that the country needs to import rice for the use of institutional buyers like restaurants.

'We cannot prevent importation as we have Japanese restaurants, Indian restaurants that need a special kind of rice,' Sebastian added.

Marcos has approved the adoption of hybrid rice to increase palay production as he vowed to achieve rice self-sufficiency by 2025.

Former Agriculture secretary and Federation of Free Farmers' Leonardo Montemayor dubbed Marcos' pronouncement as 'over-ambitious,' saying the country's sufficiency level is only at 80 percent.

Sebastian said that the DA targets to expand rice plantation planted to hybrid seeds from 1.5 million to 3 million hectares by 2025.

'We need to increase our funding to achieve our target and increase our production, including the revenues of our farmers,' he added.

Sebastian said, for 2023, at least P8 billion fund has been allocated for the DA's rice program.

'Our program does not only focus on production. We also need to consider the value chain. We need to provide assistance until after the harvest to make sure that the farmgate price of palay will not go down,' Sebastian said.