20-M MT rice yield seen

The country's total rice production for 2023 is expected to hit 20 million metric tons, Department of Agriculture Undersecretary for Rice Industry Development Leocadio Sebastian reported over the weekend.

He cited rice production data from the Philippine Statistics Authority for the first three quarters of the year.

Sebastian said that compared to the output of 19.756 MMT harvested from 4,804,591 hectares in 2022, this year's rice production is seen to hit 20.143 million MT from 4,816,933 hectares, or up by 386,193 metric tons.

The areas planted with rice also slightly increased by 12,342 hectares, according to Sebastian.

He added that production from Irrigated areas rose from 14,938,689 MT in 2022 to 15,328,462 MT in 2023, or up by 389,733 MT.

Production in rainfed areas, on the other hand, dropped from 4,818,704 MT in 2022 to 4,814,124 MT or by 3,579 MT, owing mainly to a decline in harvest area from 1,463,680 in 2022 to 1,431,95 hectares in 2023, or a drop of 31,727 hectares.

However, the DA official explained that palay yields for irrigated and rainfed areas slightly rose from 4.47 tons per hectare in 2022 to 4.53 MT/hectare in 2023, or a change of 0.06 tons per hectare for irrigated areas.

For rainfed areas, yield increased from 3.29 tons per hectare in 2022 to 3.36 tons per hectare in 2023, or a change of 0.07 tons per hectare.

Sebastian said 2023 is a better year for palay farmers as the rice industry was beset by extremely high fertilizer prices in 2022.

The cost of production was P14.96 per kilogram, and the average dried palay price was P17 per kilogram, so farmers only earned P2.48 per kilogram, he said.

He shared that in his visit to Isabela, farmers told him they were happy with the current high palay prices at the farmgate.

Sebastian said that one indication of reasonable palay prices is that many seed growers sell their seeds as palay instead of certified seeds for planting.

"This is the first time that in the wet season crop, nobody complained about low palay prices. The farmers are happy," Sebastian said.

He cited a rice mill in Isabela, which enjoyed a milling recovery of 70 percent of good quality rice selling for P49 per kilogram.

The mill also utilized darak for feeds and rice hull to produce electricity, thus reducing its electricity cost to about P5 per kilowatt hour for the processing plant.