ILOILO – Despite the coronavirus disease pandemic, Western Visayas is 138.73 percent rice sufficient, according to Executive Director Remelyn Recoter of the Department of Agriculture (DA) in Region 6.
For the first semester of 2021, all provinces in Region 6 – except for Aklan and Negros Occidental – achieved at least 100 percent rice sufficiency rate: Capiz, 186.76; Antique, 181.17; Iloilo, 169.30; and Guimaras, 152.48.
Aklan had 96.33 rice sufficiency rate and Negros Occidental, 87.19.
Based on the 10-year rice production performance (2010-2020), Western Visayas also had the highest production last year at 2,295,580 metric tons (MT), Recoter told journalists yesterday.
Recoter attributed the region’s high rice production to the government’s intervention.
Free seeds and fertilizers were provided through various programs such as the Rice Competitiveness Enhanced Fund from the Rice Tarrification Law, and from Bayanihan 1 and 2 as support to the affected rice farmers during the pandemic, Recoter said.
In the first semester of this year, rice production in Region 6 reached 818,600 metric tons.
Across all ecosystems (irrigated, rain-fed and upland), the province of Iloilo had the highest production at 383,363 MT, followed by Capiz – 187,285 MT; Negros Occidental – 107,593 MT; Antique – 86,760; Aklan – 39,503 MT; and Guimaras – 15,096 MT for the first semester of 2021.
In terms of average yield (MT per hectare), Iloilo recorded the highest at 3.19 MT/ha followed by Antique – 2.76 MT/ha; Guimaras – 2.45 MT/ha; Negros Occidental – 2.16 MT/ha; Capiz – 2.09 MT/ha; and Aklan – 1.97 MT/ha.
The region recorded an average yield of 2.58 MT/ha for the first semester this year.
Recoter also recalled the statement from National Economic and Development Authority officer-in-charge regional director Meylene Rosales that amid the pandemic, the agriculture sector has become the region’s “saving grace” with 4.7 percent value of production growth rate across the different commodities of agriculture and fisheries sector.
“Contributing to that 4.7 percent, the crop sector provided the increase in the growth rate with 10.2 percent, credit to rice commodities which has contributed a lot in the product and performance growth rate of the agriculture sector in Western Visayas,” the regional director added./PN
