The Department of Agriculture (DA) in Western Visayas is projecting a 39 percent increase in palay production volume this wet cropping season or at least 1.2 million metric tons of palay production compared to 865,923 metric tons of actual harvest last year.
Elmer Cabusas, DA-6 rice program coordinator, said this is due to the interventions they have made and the expansion of areas planted reaching 299,621 hectares both rainfed and irrigated.
Per province, Iloilo has over 145,000 hectares planted to palay with a projected production volume of 497,185 metric tons this cropping season; Negros Occidental, 292,661 metric tons; Capiz, 165,297 metric tons; Antique, 161,259 metric tons; Aklan, 62,828 metric tons; and Guimaras, 21,980 metric tons.
DA-6 is hoping to produce 2.3 million metric tons of palay.
“Based on consolidated LGU reports, we have already accumulated 1.2 million metric tons production from more than 360,000 hectares of harvested areas with an average yield of 3.7 metric tons per hectare from January to September,” said Cabusas.
Under favorable climate, proper utilization of inputs provided, and adoption of recommended rice production technologies, he said that the region can secure a four metric tons per hectare average yield this 2021.
Cabusas mentioned that this year, Iloilo and Guimaras are being prioritized for the Rice Hybridization Program, while the interventions for the four provinces are covered by the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) Program.
For the hybrid cluster, 1,746 bags (at 15 kilograms per bag) of seeds were distributed to Guimaras and 73,374 bags to Iloilo. The three bags of fertilizer complementing each bag of hybrid seeds are being provided to the farmers through the voucher system where they could access the inputs from DA – accredited agri suppliers in the region.IMT(with reports from DA-RAFIS 6)
