Cost to grow rice falls 30% spurred by free trade pact

Santo Domingo.- The cost to grow rice has fallen by 30% onhalf of local production in the last three years, as the result of a processthat will ensure the sector’s competitiveness when the tariff of CAFTA freetrade pact is lifted.

Agriculture Bank (Bagricola) administrator Carlos Segurasaid that when producer was using 20 pounds of seed per 630 per square meter onaverage, now uses only six pounds, by eliminating tillage, soil leveling and byplanting in bulk, “considerably reducing production costs.”

He stressed the improved equipment used to prepare soilthroughout the production process, saving 27 pesos per sack of rice.

He said Bagricola finances,promotes and develops rice production with loans to the subsector. “In recentyears this institution formalized RD$976.8 million in loans to rice farmers, or58.5% compared with those targeting other agricultural items, and the fundingallowed to cover a surface of more than 72,000 hectares of the grain.”