DA: Rice farms bounce back from El Niño spell

Rice farms have posted a turnaround from the El Niño dry spell that brought production down in 2010, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said in its third-quarter report released Tuesday. In its January-to-March Performance of Philippine Agriculture report, the DA said the production of palay or unmilled rice grew 15.63 percent in the first quarter, equivalent to 4.04 million metric tons (MT). The El Niño phenomenon, the drought-inducing weather pattern that hit the country last year, brought down palay production by 0.12 percent in 2010 as opposed to its growth of 0.29 percent in 2009. In February, DA Secretary Proceso Alcala expressed confidence that the Philippines will produce more of the staple this year, citing government moves such as the expansion of areas planted to rice. The Aquino administration plans to make the Philippines rice self-sufficient by 2013. However, an official of the International Rice Research Institute has labeled this target “ambitious," citing negative factors like an unpredictable climate. Other analysts have questioned the government’s rice self-sufficiency target amid intelligence reports that warn of an impending rice shortage in the Philippines, according to a report on GMA News TV’s “State of the Nation" newscast.
For the latest Philippine news stories and videos, visit GMANews.TV Total farm output expands Rice production grew within the context of higher agriculture output in general, which expanded by 4.1 percent in the first quarter, according to the DA report. In a press briefing Tuesday, Alcala noted that the development still fell behind the target — 4.5 percent to 5 percent — for agriculture this year. The secretary, however, said the agency projects “even higher growth for the next two quarters that will put us on target." Contributing 52.99 percent to the total agricultural output, the crops subsector grew 8.19 percent in the first three months, the DA reported. The major contributors that drove crop production were palay, corn, sugarcane, and banana. The crops subsector amounted to P206.1 billion at current prices, a 26.69-percent increase from the level a year earlier. The livestock and poultry subsectors meanwhile recorded a growth of 0.59 percent and 3.92 percent, respectively. Livestock production amounted to P49.7 billion at current prices, while the poultry subsector grossed P39 billion. Only the fisheries subsector recorded a decline at 3.49 percent. The subsector amounted to P52.4 billion at current prices. Maura Lizarondo, assistant director of the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics, said the third-quarter performance of the fisheries subsector was the lowest registered since 1998. “It has always been positive except during the same period last year when output was also down," Lizarondo said. In the wake of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan in March, the DA said its production levels can fill in the agriculture needs of the disaster-stricken country, according the radio-television simulcast “Dobol B sa News TV."
For the latest Philippine news stories and videos, visit GMANews.TV Meanwhile , the DA said farmgate prices which rose 8.29 percent outstripped inflation during the first three months of the year. — VS, GMA News