The Department of Agriculture (DA) is optimistic the country would again set a record palay yield for the year following first quarter’s performance.
The DA said the 4.63 million metric tons (MT) of palay harvested in the country during the quarter represented a 8.6-percent increase from 4.26 million MT in the same period last year and besting the 4.62 million MT record harvest in the first quarter of 2018.
“This record first-quarter yield further boosts our confidence to hit or even surpass the 20.4-million MT palay production target we set this year, barring strong typhoons and other natural calamities,” said DA Secretary William Dar.
Dar in a statement said better output is mainly due to the implementation of various interventions.
John de Leon, director of the Philippine Rice Research Institute , attributed the production growth to improvements in both area harvested and yield.
De Leon said the area harvested increased by 4.53 percent while yield grew by 3.87 percent over the same three-month period last year.
“Area harvested to rice expanded from 1.10 million hectares (ha) to 1.15 million ha while yield went up from 3.88 MT per ha to 4.03 MT per ha. Overall, area harvested contributed 54 percent to the incremental first quarter production while the share of yield was 46 percent,” de Leon said.
He added the first quarter growth in palay output was observed in both irrigated and rainfed areas with improvements in area harvested attributable to the above- normal rainfall due to a series of typhoons in the last quarter of 2020 that enabled farmers to do a quick turnaround planting.
Apart from a better output, Dar said DA expects a more stable market for rice this year with the help of available funding under the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund and the agency’s banner national inbred and hybrid rice program and rice resiliency project, despite the challenges brought by the pandemic.
“We are slowly achieving a favorable equilibrium, wherein consumers have access to affordable rice while our farmers reap bountiful harvests and earn bigger incomes as a result of yield improvements and stable prices of palay,” Dar said.
The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture meanwhile sees the country’s agricultural volume of production to grow this year.
The Philippine Statistics Authority said the country’s agriculture production performance dropped by 3.3 percent for the first quarter of the year due to the slowdown of livestock and poultry subsectors.
Despite the drop, the country recorded an 8.2 percent increase in the value of agricultural production at current prices as it reached P484.8 billion.
