Department of Agriculture forecasts 50% hike in Q1 palay output

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Agriculture (DA) is sticking to its projection of a 50 percent increase in palay production in the first quarter of 2012, according to National Rice Program coordinator Dante de Lima.

In an interview with reporters, De Lima said that the DA has advanced the dry season palay planting so that the crops are harvested before the onset of the wet season.

Following the quick-turnaround (QTA) and ratooning undertaken by the DA in November this year after the series of typhoons that hit the country in the third quarter, the DA is projecting a 50 percent increase in palay production in the first quarter of 2012 with the improvement in the weather.

By advancing the palay dry season planting, De Lima said farmers should be able to harvest the dry season crop before the wet season as storms normally hit from July to October.

Around 50,000 hectares in Luzon, served by the Pantabangan and Magat irrigation systems, were utilized for the QTA program from November this year to February next year.

For Visayas and Mindanao, De Lima said an initial 100,000 hectares of rain-fed farms were targeted for ratooning, where an average yield of 25 cavans per hectare is expected.

Ratooning is a technology where remaining stubble or rice stalks are allowed to re-generate tillers and grains, with the application of fertilizers (one bag of urea or complete fertilizers per hectare).

Ratooned rice are ready for harvest after 45 days.

The second cropping season will be from April to July with an expected 50 percent output because of the expected rains, and the third cropping season will be from September to December, also with a 100 percent production output, based on the DA’s projections.

With its proposed 2012 budget amounting to some P24.7 billion, the National Irrigration Administration (NIA) targets to irrigate a total of 250,000 hectares of farmland.

“With our targeted cropping intensity of 150 percent, we expect 100 percent palay production for our irrigated areas of 250,000 hectares during the rainy season, and 60 percent or 150,000 hectares for the dry season, for a total harvested area of 400,000 hectares,” NIA administrator Antonio Nangel earlier said.

“Computed at a modest 4.5 tons or 90 cavans of rice produced per hectare, the irrigated areas could generate 1.8 million metric tons of rice, which is our contribution to the rice self-sufficiency program of the Aquino government,” Nangel added.