Kalinga is the country's top rice producer

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines  – Kalinga province is the country's top rice producer, besting  other rice-producing locations.

With a production of 167,293 metric tons of rice in 2012, Kalinga won the 2012 National Rice Achiever’s Award and a P4-million cash incentive from the Department of Agriculture (DA).

Kalinga accounts for about 1.04 percent of the country’s national rice requirement in 2012.

Agricultural production enhancement programs  of the DA and the Kalinga government helped the province boost its rice production,  said Joe Casibang, coordinator of the Kalinga Rice Program.

With such partnership,   more infrastructure support to farmers through farm-to-market roads, better irrigation facilities, drying pavements, storage and other interventions came, the official said.

Close work tie-ups among DA experts and local government unit technicians also opened rice farmers' interest on agricultural breakthroughs that introduced them to new and improved farming technology, he added.

Kalinga has opened new rice lands with the total rice production area now reaching more than 20,000 hectares, records from the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPAG) bared.

In 2012, the provincial government poured in more than P30 million in funding support to agriculture, mostly as  a counterpart fund of projects with the national government. - Artemio A. Dumlao