THE Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) on Thursday inaugurated the National Seed Reserve, a centralized facility designed to preserve high-quality seeds and secure planting-material supply for crop production and post-disaster recovery.
Located at the bureau’s Quezon City compound, the facility has three 400-square-meter storage rooms with a combined capacity of 9,000 bags of palay seeds. It will serve as the government’s long-term seed repository.
The reserve runs on solar power, aligned with the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) sustainability agenda, at a cost of nearly P1.7 million, according to BPI Director Glenn Panganiban.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said properly stored seeds yield better germination rates and higher productivity.
Panganiban said the facility would anchor a more reliable, integrated seed security system, ensuring long-term preservation, quality, and timely availability of seeds for planting programs, disaster response, and rehabilitation efforts.
The reserve will also offer storage services to partner-agencies, institutions, and the private sector.
Tiu Laurel called the facility a key part of the country’s food security strategy amid intensifying climate risks. “In the face of stronger typhoons, prolonged droughts, and other climate-driven disruptions, having a dependable reserve of quality seeds means we can help farmers replant quickly, restore food production faster, and strengthen the resilience of our agriculture sector,” he said.
The DA said that unpredictable weather has repeatedly disrupted production and farmers’ livelihoods. Hence, a seed reserve would cut replanting delays after disasters and ease effects on supply and prices.
Tiu Laurel cited Baguio, where a shortage of carrot seeds after flooding forced farmers to plant cabbage instead, causing a cabbage supply collapse.
He said the DA will build larger, upgraded versions of the facility in every region, backed by P250 million this year and P300 million next year.