DA executives see better rice harvest next year

THE country’s grains sector is expected to recover next year, and may even post another record-high harvest, on the back of favorable weather conditions coupled by intensive government support, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said on Wednesday.

Agriculture Assistant Secretary Andrew B. Villacorta said the department is projecting that palay output in 2019 may increase by 4.7 percent to a new record high of 20 million metric tons, from the estimated 19.1 MMT output this year.

Villacorta explained that they expect palay output in the first semester next year to reach 4.7 MMT, while the remaining volume would be harvested in the second half, which covers the country’s main harvest season.

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said the DA is banking on the additional funding coming from the rice competitiveness enhancement fund (RCEF) to bankroll measures to improve the country’s rice production.

“The RCEF would provide additional P10 billion to the rice industry. It will actually boost our production for next year in fact if it is implemented properly, the RCEF could make our farmers competitive and increase their production,” Piñol said in a news briefing on Tuesday.

The DA earlier projected that rice output this year would fall below the 19-MMT level, following the damage caused by Typhoon Ompong in Northern Luzon farms.

“It is not as bad as we thought it would be. Our earlier forecast was 19.4 MMT [this year], the highest in the history of rice industry but with the series of typhoons, it was reduced to about 19.17 MMT,” Piñol said.

“It was lower than last year but still higher than 2016. And it could be the second-highest harvest in spite of the typhoons,” he added.

Villacorta said they are eyeing to achieve a nationwide average rice yield of at least 4.28 MT per hectare from the 2018 estimated level of 3.87 MT per hectare.

“Our target by 2020 is to have an average [yield] of 6 MT per hectare per harvest,” Piñol said. “We are on track as far as our projections are concerned, even if we get hit by calamities and disasters from time to time.”

The DA is also expecting a 5-percent increase in the country’s corn output next year, which would reach a record-high level of 8.18 MMT from the estimated 2018 volume of 7.77 MMT.

With the recovery of the crops subsector next year, Piñol said he is optimistic that the farm sector would hit full-year growth of at least 2 percent.

Piñol disclosed that the economic managers have asked him to maintain 2-percent growth so that the farm output may cope with the country’s population growth which is estimated at about 1.7 percent annually.

“I think 2 percent is doable. We are confident we could hit it,” he said.