BACOLOD City – Negros Occidental has enough supply of rice, Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson assured Negrenses amid concerns of a possible shortage.
The province is 84 percent rice sufficient at present, said Lacson.
As of Aug. 15, rice production in the province increased by an average yield of 97.92 cavans per hectare – a significant improvement from the 89.02 cavans last year, data from the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA) showed.
OPA said the higher rice yield was achieved with the use of certified seeds.
However, the governor said the province needed higher rice production to avert a possible shortage due to high global demand and calamities.
To close the supply-and-demand gap, the provincial government promotes farm-level productivity interventions through the Dagyaw Project.
“Even though we started this project in September of last year only, rice production has increased significantly,” said Lacson.
In 2022, the province’s supervised seed growers produced 199,590 bags of certified rice seeds valued at P300 million while this year, 77,825 bags have already been produced worth P121 million.
For the past year, a total of 130,690 hectares of rice land were planted to rice in Negros Occidental, with 121,378 hectares harvested and production of 465,665 metric tons (MT) at an average yield of 3.84 MT per hectare.
Currently, the provincial government is equipped with complete farm mechanization facilities to mechanize a total of 12,540 hectares of rice land.
Some 200 job order workers have been deployed to facilitate the Dagyaw Project implementation.
Lacson further said that to ensure food security and agricultural productivity, the province maximizes production in irrigated areas for farmers to be more confident in their production despite the threat of El Niño. (With a report from Philippine News Agency)/PN
