Leyte is Eastern Visayas top rice producer in 2017

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines — Leyte province posted the highest rice production in Eastern Visayas last year, according to yesterday's report from the Philippine Statistics Authority-Region 8.

Wilma Perante, regional director of PSA-8, told The Freeman that Leyte topped five other provinces in Eastern Visayas with the highest volume of palay (fresh from the farm or unmilled rice) at 481,487 metric tons, which was about 50.9 percent of the total palay production in the region.

Eastern Samar, meanwhile, had the lowest volume of production–59,754 metric tons–of  only 6.3 percent of the region's output, she said. Total palay production in Eastern Visayas however declined from 954,844 metric tons in 2016 to 945,565 metric tons last year. 

Perante added that the total harvest area for palay in Region 8 inched up by 1.8 percent: from 268,110 hectares in 2016 to 272,889 hectares in 2017. Increases in palay area harvested were observed among all provinces, except for Biliran and Southern Leyte, which exhibited decreases of 2.6 percent and 2.4 percent, respectively.

Leyte recorded 43.4 percent (481,487 hectares) of the total palay area harvested in 2017, while Biliran contributed the least (14,383 hectares) or only 5.3 percent, Perante said.

Yield for palay in the region went down by 2.7 percent, from 3.6 MT per hectare in 2016 to 3.5 MT per hectare in 2017, she said.

Biliran posted the highest yield per hectare at 4.5 MT per hectare, while Eastern Samar registered the lowest yield per hectare at 2.6 MT per hectare, last year, Perante added.