Palay production expands 5% in Q1

MANILA, Philippines - The country’s production of palay (unhusked rice) rose five percent in the first quarter amid improved average yield in most planting areas, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said.

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said his expected bumper harvest based on mere visual appreciation has been validated by satellite and ground data provided by the Philippine Rice Satellite Monitoring (PRiSM), DA’s latest rice-data technology.

Data showed that palay production reached 4.1 million metric tons (MT), up from 3.9 million MT recorded in the first quarter of 2016.

The growth in production was also due to lower hectarage planted this quarter of about 997,000 hectares from the 1.1 million hectares.