Assessment of Three Heirloom Rice Landraces in Rainfed Areas of Abra in Philippines

Heirloom rice demand in the Philippines and international market is high due to its outstanding eating quality, texture, taste, aroma, and nutritional value, thus, the study was conducted to assess the performance of three heirloom rice landraces, namely, ballatinaw, oliog, and talakdang. A Randomized Complete Block Design consisting of 45 plots each block with an area of 10 square meters per plot was used for a total of 180 plots covering a total of 2,438 square meters. Statistical Tool for Agricultural Research was used to analyze the gathered data, and Least Significant Differences were used to compare the significant differences between and among treatment means. Based on the result, Oliog significantly outperformed Ballatinaw and Talakdang in terms of initial and final height, panicle length, number of leaves, and the length of the flag leaf. Ballatinaw produced the highest number of tillers and productive tillers, while the Talakdang produced the widest flag leaf, the highest number of panicle grains, the most number of filled grains, and the lowest number of unfilled grains and sterility percentage. However, Ballatinaw produced the highest yield and was observed to be more suited to the rainfed areas than Talakdang and Oliog, which could be attributed to the genetic traits of Ballatinaw. The study was conducted to determine the most suitable and appropriate variety of heirloom rice for production in the rainfed areas in the province of Abra, Philippines.