ILOILO – The Provincial Agriculture Office (PAO) is hopeful that the province’s farmers would be able to harvest one million metric tons (MT) of palay by the end of the year – 2,000 MT more compared to last year’s harvest of 800,000 MT.
But PAO head Ildefonso Toledo admitted that they are not confident to hit the target because of the huge damage on rice fields in northern Iloilo left by Typhoon “Agaton” last April 2022.
Toledo added the possibility of another typhoon or consistent rains in the last quarter of the year that can hamper their palay production target.
“Indi kami confident nga malab-ot but if we can just maintain our mark nga 800,000 metric tons that’s good thing,” he said.
The PAO chief, meanwhile, assured that the province is 180 percent rice self-sufficient, adding it is not a problem if they fail to reach this year’s target palay production.
In 2020, Iloilo only harvested 500,000 to 600,000 MT of palay due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
To help farmers improve their palay production, PAO and the Department of Agriculture are advocating to plant hybrid rice.
Toledo said the provincial government is distributing hybrid rice and fertilizers to farmers.
“Nagahatag kita sang subsidy paagi sa hybrid seeds kay amo na ang naka-lift sang production for 2021,” he said.
PAO also conducts trainings to teach farmers on how to further improve their palay production.
There are around 14,000 farmers in the province while more than 136,000 hectares here are rice land area, PAO record showed./PN
