DA lowers palay production target

The Department of Agriculture has adjusted downwards its 2008 palay production target to 16.7 million metric tons following a 30- percent drop in the use of fertilizers.

The DA’s original target for 2008 was over 17 million MT which it subsequently adjusted to 16.8 million MT, despite an expansion in the area planted to palay this wet cropping season.

Palay production has fallen due to a significant decline in farmers’ use of inorganic fertilizers whose retail prices have continually risen during the first three quarters.

Areas planted to palay actually expanded P2.58 million hectares this wet cropping season, 7.5 percent higher than the original target area of 2.4 million hectares.

However, there has been a 30-percent drop in fertilizer usage as a result of a nearly 100- percent jump in the cost of petrochemical fertilizers caused by the upward spiral in crude oil prices in the world market.

Crude oil prices reached a record peak of $147 per barrel in July, translating to the average domestic rates of petroleum-based fertilizers rocketing from P1,200 last year to as high as P2,000 per bag in the first three quarters of 2008.

“Although per-hectare yields have dropped because of the corresponding decline in fertilizer use, we have managed to offset this by expanding the areas planted to palay this wet crop,” Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap said during the recent Rice Awareness Celebration in Manila.

The DA’s new production target of 16.7 million MT for the year is much higher than the 2007 yield of 16.24 million MT.

Dr. Frisco Malabanan, national coordinator of the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani Rice Program, said preliminary yields indicate that a positive growth in palay production remains possible despite the significant drop in fertilizer use by farmers.

Malabanan said the full-year production forecast of 16.8 million MT was based on the combined yields of 10.587 million MT in the first three quarters of 2008, which represents a growth of 7.22 percent compared to the 9.874 million MT during the same period last year.