Chinese Government provides $5 million grant for Phase 1 of Agricultural Technical Cooperation Project (Linked to Record ID#34702, #34701, #63874, and #63877)

In 2003, China and the Philippines launched Phase I of the Agricultural Technical Cooperation Program at the Philippines-Sino Center for Agricultural Technology (PhilSCAT) at Central Luzon State University.

The project was established with support from a $5 million Chinese Government grant, in addition to land and P10.5m from the Philippine Department of Agriculture. The total project cost around 500 million PHP. Phase 1 of the project began in June 2003 and ended in June 2008.

It was primarily concerned with hybrid rice and agri-mechanization technologies and was deemed a modest success. 50 Chinese hybrid rice varieties were tested in 22 rice-growing municipalities in the Philippines, with 33 selected.

PhilSCAT also developed 7 new hybrid rice varieties, with 3 being submitted for approval for large-scale production and possible distribution.

This project is linked to the establishment of PhilSCAT (recorded in Record ID#34702), phase II of the Technical Cooperation project (recorded in Record ID#63877), and phase III (recorded in Record ID#63874). Additional financing for TCP-I came from the $100 million USD credit line captured in Record ID#34701.