Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 14) — The country’s production of palay (rice paddy) is projected to increase in the third quarter of the year by 16.4 percent to 3.551 million metric tons versus the same period last year.
In its latest Palay and Corn estimates report, the Philippine Statistics Authority said this projection is higher than the third quarter 2019 production at 3.051 million MT.
Latest estimate is also higher by 0.2 percent than the initial data at 3.545 million MT as of July 1.
The increased projection is backed by improved harvest area, which was up 15.7 percent from 742,870 hectares last year, PSA said. It added that yield per hectare is expected to inch up 0.49 percent to 4.13 million MT in the period.
Meanwhile, corn production is also seen to improve by 3.4 percent to 2.817 million MT versus last year.
In the second quarter palay production grew 7.1 percent to 4.125 million MT, while corn production grew 15.4 percent to 1.352 million MT.
Only the agriculture sector reported a growth at 1.6 percent during the period amid the health crisis. Industry and services both fell by 22.9 percent and 15.8 percent, respectively.
The Department of Agriculture has implemented programs to increase the country’s rice production with the goal to bring rice self-sufficiency to 93 percent this year from currently 86 percent. This includes loan programs to provide more funds to rice farmers, and the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund for upskilling of farmers and for improving production through innovation.
Agriculture Secretary William Dar also renewed his call for local government units to purchase rice directly from rice farmers to help in stabilizing the price of the staple grain.
