By Manny Piñol
Jordan, Guimaras – Three of the country’s major rice producing regions, Central Luzon, Cagayan Valley and Ilocos, have reported huge increases in their projected rice yields for 2019 Dry Season, in spite of the adverse effects of El Niño.
The dramatic increase in the rice yields of the three regions has strengthened the projection of the Department of Agriculture (DA) of a historic-high harvest of 20-million metric tons for 2019.
During the 2nd Quarter Management Committee Meeting held here, Central Luzon Regional Director Crispulo Bautista reported that the rice production for 2019 Dry Season is placed at 2.2-million metric tons.
The 2019 Dry Season Harvest of Central Luzon is 22% higher than the 2018 harvest of 1.8-million metric tons.
“With this harvest, we are projecting an annual harvest of over 4-million metric tons which be the highest for the region since 2014,” Director Bautista reported.
Ilocos Regional Director Lucrecio Alviar, Jr. also reported a 14.4% increase in the 2019 Dry Season Planting with 560,896 metric tons as against 490,108 last year.
Cagayan Valley Regional Director Narciso Edillo reported a 2019 Dry Season Planting Harvest of 1.511-million metric tons as againsy 1.479-million metric tons during the same period last year or an increase of 2.16%.
The three Regional Directors reported that rice production in their areas was not affected by El Niño because the planted areas for the season are all irrigated.
” We were not affected by El Niño because there is enough water in Pantabangan Dam,” Bautista said.
The three Regional Directors said the Wet Planting Season will start early May to avoid the typhoons which usually hit Northern Luzon towards the end of the year.
The country recorded its highest rice production in 2017 with 19.28-million metric tons, a huge jump from the 17.6-million metric tons in 2016, the last production of the previous administration.
In 2018, rice production dipped to 19.05-million metric tons due to the onslaught of over 20 typhoons, including Super Typhoon Ompong.
The increase in the national production is attributed to the increased utilization of good quality seeds from 48% to 60% in the three years of the administration of President Rody Duterte.
Added interventions like free seeds, mechanization, irrigation and fertilization are expected to boost rice production further in 2020.
Damage to rice crops because of El Niño accounts for less than 1% of the total projected national production for 2019.
(Photos of rice fields in Nueva Ecija, Isabela and Pangasinan submitted by the DA Regional Offices.)
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