Eastern Visayas sufficient in rice despite decline in palay production
TACLOBAN CITY- Eastern Visayas will continue be rice sufficient despite of the projected decline of production of palay.
This was assured by Department of Agriculture Regional Executive Director Leo Cañeda who said that the projected decrease of palay production could reach at four percent.
“Eastern Visayas will continue to be rice sufficient despite of a four percent decline of our palay output for this year as projected by the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics,” Cañeda said.
Rice infestation and the low level of farmers who are using the certified seeds were the two major factors cited by the DA regional director for the projected decline of the rice production in the region.
According to him, the infestations among rice lands in the region was considered massive as an estimated over 20,000 hectares of agricultural lands were affected. The big bulk of the affected land areas were in Leyte and Northern Samar.
Both Leyte and Northern Samar are considered to be the region’s rice granaries.
Director Cañeda also revealed that out of the more than 150,000 rice farmers in the region, only 80,000 of them are using certified seeds which yield more harvest than the regular rice seeds.
“They cited the prohibitive cost of the certified seeds,” he said, when asked what could be the reason why big number of farmers in the region are not into using the certified seeds.
The agriculture department has been campaigning for farmers to use the certified seeds for the past several years now.
Cañeda said that aware of the high cost of the certified bags, their office is subsidizing the cost by almost half of its cost.
He also said that several local government units in the region, citing Ormoc City in particular, help their farmers acquire certified seeds by shouldering the cost.
Their office is aiming for all the farmers in the region to use certified seeds to boost its rice production, the DA top official said.
“That is the only way to bail us out,” Cañeda stressed.
Aside from the widespread rice infestation and non-use of certified seeds among farmers in the region, typhoons that hit Eastern Visayas this year was another factor why rice production dipped, Cañeda added.
The projected four percent decline of rice production in the region for this year would mean that its estimated more than 1 million metric tons rice output would only reach around 980,000 metric tons.
The region’s rice requirements hover around 600,000 metric tons. (JOEY A. GABIETA)
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