MANILA - Listed firm AgriNurture Inc. (ANI) has teamed up with a Chinese company to develop a new high-yield rice variety as part of its efforts to boost rice production in the Philippines.

ANI, the only agriculture firm listed in the stock market, said it has signed a memorandum of agreement with China's Heilongjiang Beidahuang Seed Group Co. Ltd. Under the deal, the Chinese firm will set up a prototype rice field in ANI's demo farm in Mabalacat, Pampanga.

According to ANI Chief Executive Officer Antonio Tiu, other rice varieties can produce 4 to 5 tons of rice per hectare for every planting season. The new rice type, on the other hand, is expected to have twice this yield.

“We can produce 9 to 10 tons per hectare per season,” Tiu said in a statement.

The country's rice harvest reached 7.38 million metric tons during the first 6 months of the year, a 3.65% growth from the same period in 2008.

According to Director Frisco Malabanan of the Department of Agriculture's GMA Rice Program, the government is on track to meet its full-year target of 17.48 million metric tons given the healthy rise in rice production during the first half.

The Philippines has become the world's top rice importer as the country continues to suffer from rice shortage. Last year, the government was forced to import 2.4 million tons of rice from other east Asian countries and the United States.

To respond to this problem, the government has launched the GMA rice self-sufficiency program, with the aim to make the country an independent rice producer by 2013.