CEBU, Philippines — The government sees the price of rice to stabilize, as thousands of farmers nationwide began harvesting their main season crop this month until October.
Agriculture Undersecretary for rice industry development Leo Sebastian said initial palay harvest is expected to reach 2 million metric tons (MMT) by the end of September, and up to 3 MMT in October.
The estimates were made by the Philippine Rice Information System (PRiSM) as of Aug. 14 using satellite data.
"In all, for the second semester, or July to December, we estimate to produce more than 11 million metric tons and, barring strong typhoons in the remaining months of the year, we hope to hit the 20-million MT level for 2023 national palay output," Sebastian said in his report to President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., who is also the agriculture secretary.
For September, Sebastian said PRiSM has reported that the bulk of the 2.3-MMT harvest would come from the provinces of Isabela, Cagayan, Iloilo, Nueva Ecija, North Cotabato, Leyte, Oriental Mindoro, Camarines Sur, Palawan, Bukidnon, Zamboanga del Sur, and Davao del Norte.
By end of October, most of the estimated 2.9-MMT palay yield would come from Nueva Ecija, Pangasinan, Tarlac, Isabela, Occidental Mindoro, Cagayan, Oriental Mindoro, Bulacan, Iloilo, Bukidnon, Agusan del Sur, Ilocos Sur, Leyte, and Camarines Sur.
Sebastian said the DA, under the Masagana Rice Industry Development Program, would continue to provide rice farmers with needed high-yielding seeds, fertilizers, biofertilizers, soil ameliorants, farm machinery, financial, and marketing support.
"Initially, we will focus on fully irrigated clustered farms to optimize palay yield, where farmers would plant high-yielding hybrid rice varieties, to at least one million hectares and we expect them to produce an average of six to eight MT per hectare, for a total of six to eight MMT,” he said.
The government started on Saturday the distribution of cash aid of P15,000 each to small retailers of rice affected by the newly imposed cap on rice prices.
The cash assistance is in line with Marcos’ directive to immediately assist rice retailers deemed most affected by Executive Order 39, which puts a cap on the price of rice at P41 per kilo for regular milled rice and P45 per kilo for well-milled rice.
The EO took effect on Sept. 5. (CEBU NEWS)