DA optimistic on higher palay output in 2021
PALAY (paddy rice) production and farmgate prices are increasing and have become more affordable to the public since the enactment of the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) more than two years ago, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said.
“To top it all, with sustained initiatives and strong cooperation of various rice industry stakeholders, we look forward to achieving an alltime record of at least 20.4 million MT (metric tons) of palay this year,” said Agriculture Secretary William Dar in a statement on Sunday.
Dar said with this law, despite being “a transformative but disruptive policy reform,” the country is hurdling the challenges in its implementation, “with tangible results in terms of palay productivity, farmgate price, and retail prices of rice.”
“Rice is no longer the traditional driver of inflation. In fact, the stable supply of rice under the RTL regime has helped temper food inflation in the past several months, which continues to experience upward pressure from the tight supply of meat,” he added.
The DA, through its Philippine Integrated Rice Program (PIRP), is projecting palay production to reach 10 million MT.
DA-PIRP Director Dionisio Alvindia, in a report, said they are expecting the palay sector to continue its positive growth this year amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“The higher prices of palay at farmgate provide more incentives for our farmers to continue planting,” Alvindia said.
Alvindia said the optimism is bouyed by the latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) stating that production reached 4.57 million MT in the first quarter of 2021, up by 7.2 percent from the 4.26 million MT recorded in the same period a year ago.
The PSA attributed the gains to the increase in harvest area (1.1 million hectares) and planting intentions (85 percent of total area actually planted) during the quarter.
Alvindia said at least two million hectares of land were planted to rice during the dry cropping season, with farmers producing an average of 5 MT per hectare, roughly 1 MT more than the national average.
Through the programs under the
Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF), the agency is also continuously working with farmers’ groups, local government units, and industry stakeholders on the distribution of hybrid and inbred seeds, fertilizers, farm machinery and equipment, other production inputs, credit, and training and extension.
As of last March 28, the RCEF programs were able to provide the following interventions to rice farmers: 9,236 machineries and equipment delivered to 3,180 farmers’ cooperatives and associations (FCAs); 1.65 million bags (20 kilogram per bag) of certified seeds distributed to 661,567 farmers; P2 billion worth of loans to 5,956 farmers and 97 FCAs, where 7,317 of its members are sub-borrowers; trained 226 specialists, 8,110 trainers and 71,962 farmers; established new 90 farm schools; and enhanced 43 existing farm schools.