RICE, CORN OUTPUT UP DESPITE EL NIÑO
PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday said the country’s production of rice and corn increased despite the impact of the El Niño phenomenon.
Marcos announced the increase in rice and corn production after meeting with National Irrigation Administration (NIA) Administrator Eduardo Guillen and other government officials.
“Our rice harvest increased significantly despite the challenges of El Niño. We yielded 11 tons per hectare, while corn production surged by 5.9 percent,”Marcos said in a statement on his Facebook page.
“This agricultural resilience is a testament to our commitment to sustainable farming practices,” he added.
At a Palace press briefing, Guillen said corn and rice production climbed by 5.9 percent and 1.1 percent, respectively, in the first quarter of 2024.
Guillen said that during a harvest festival in Guimba, Nueva Ecija, this week, one farmer harvested at least 12 tons of palay for every hectare.
This showed that farmers could increase their yield with the use of the alternate wetting and drying (AWD) planting strategy, he said.
Some farmers even harvested as much as 19 metric tons per hectare, the NIA chief added.
For some, a 969 square meter of land produced 32 50-kilo sacks of palay.
Guillen said the NIA was able to irrigate 99 percent of the country’s irrigated areas during the onset of the dry spell.
To maximize land usage, he said farmers planted high-value crops such as corn in the non-irrigated tail-end area.
“This proves that our direction and that what we are doing is right, and we will continue ... this system,” Guillen added.
Based on the Department of Agriculture’s latest price monitoring, imported special rice is priced at P57 to P65 per kilo, while premium rice is between P52 and P63.
Imported well-milled rice, on the other hand, is valued at P51 to P54, while regularmilled is between P48 and P51 per kilo.
Local special rice is now at P56 to P66 per kilo, premium is at P50 to P61, well-milled is at P49 to P58, and regular milled is at P50.
White corn is priced between P70 and P90 per kilo, while yellow corn ranges from P45 to P80 per kilo.