Gov't cuts 2010 palay production target

Palay production is expected to recover this year after an output decline last year in the wake of successive storms, an Agriculture official said on Wednesday. But even this year's target of 17.4 million metric tons (MT) represents a slight cut — due largely to a budget cut in the government's rice production program — from the original 18-million MT 2010 target under the government's rice self-sufficiency master plan. Frisco M. Malabanan, director of the national rice program, said the target already takes into account a prolonged dry spell expected due to a mild El Niño episode this year. "This early, we do not have any [problems]," he told reporters on the sidelines of a rice seed distribution workshop in Quezon City, noting that 60-65 percent of the crops have been planted and the water level at Pantabangan dam is sufficient. Pantabangan dam is the source of water used to irrigate farms in the key Central Luzon rice-producing provinces of Nueva Ecija, Pampanga and Bulacan. Malabanan said the Agriculture department needs P6-P7 billion to support local palay production, but the Budget department allocated only P3.1 billion under the proposed 2010 national budget. Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. has filed a resolution seeking to hike the rice budget. "I am hoping that the budget is increased," Malabanan said. The Office of the President is reviewing the P1.54-billion proposed 2010 budget. "Based on P3.1 billion, [there will be] reduction in the budget for postharvest and extension," Malabanan said. In the Rice Self-Sufficiency Plan 2008-2013, palay output is targeted to grow by at least 5.1 percent annually to reach 21.59 million MT in 2013. "Looking at the program, I do not see any reason in not attaining that," Malabanan said. In November last year, the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics forecast palay production for 2009 to have dropped by 2.37 percent to 16.42 million MT due to about 1.3 million MT of paddy rice lost to successive storms in Luzon starting at the end of September. It will mark the first time in 11 years that palay production will drop. Palay output slid by 24 percent to 8.554 million MT in 1998 from 11.268 million MT in 1997. — Neil Jerome C. Morales, BusinessWorld