ILOILO – The Provincial Agriculture Office is hopeful that local farmers would be able to harvest one million metric tons of rice by the end of the year.
There are some 6,147 hectares of rice farms in the province set to be harvested in the remaining two months of 2020, according to Elias Sandig, assistant provincial agriculturist.
“Ginalauman nga maka-harvest sang 251,000 metric tons, basta wala lang sang kalamidad nga makaapekto sa mga palay,” Sandig said.
But Sandig noted the farmers’ latest concern – the onset of La Niña phenomenon as forecasted by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration.
La Niña, a weather pattern characterized by above normal rainfall conditions, is likely to persist until the first quarter of 2021. It could adversely affect the entire Visayas and Mindanao, the state weather bureau warned.
In 2013, PAO targeted to reach one million metric tons of rice harvest. However, Typhoon “Yolanda” in November of that year derailed the goal.
Meanwhile, from January to Oct. 15 this year, farmers were able to harvest 749,667 metric tons of palay or paddy rice, data from the PAO showed.
This figure is higher compared to last year’s 754,000 metric tons in the same period.
Farmers, according to Sandig, were able to increase their yield by using hybrid rice seeds.
“Kon magamit sang hybrid seeds ang farmers, ang average yield per hectare yara sa five to six tons. Dalagku ang pinasi kag matinggas ini,” Sandig said.
Based on latest data of PAO, 10,000 of the 136,104 total hectares of rice farm in the province have been planted with hybrid seeds.
There are some 114,000 rice farmers in Iloilo, PAO records showed.
Iloilo has 134,000 hectares of rice farms. Of these, 75,000 hectares are rain-fed and 55,000 hectares irrigated.
The towns of Dumangas and Pototan both have wide swaths of rice farms and have consistent harvest.
Dumangas has an average yield of 200 sacks per hectare while majority of farmers in Pototan use hybrid seeds.
With the in-place interventions given to rice farmers under the Rice Resiliency Program, Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund, Sandig said the province could ensure its rice sufficiency this year./PN
