Palay production last year reached 20.06 million metric tons, the highest ever harvest of the Philippines’ national staple, helped by better weather conditions in the last quarter of 2023.
Based on data released Tuesday by the Philippine Statistics Authority, last year’s palay output was 1.5 percent higher than the 2022 volume of 19.76 million MT. The 2022 harvest was a decline from the previous record harvest of 19.96 million MT in 2021.
“Our goal is to push that rice harvest volume further but that could be a challenge this year because of water shortage we expect due to El Nino,” said Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel, Jr.
The record palay harvest translates to 13.2 million MT of rice, an amount that allowed the country to reduce rice import volume to 3.5 million MT from 3.8 million MT in 2022.
The DA aims to modernize agriculture to increase food production, particularly palay, ensure food security and increase farmers’ incomes.
Rice consumption is estimated at 13.5 million MT but a required 50-day buffer means the country needs an additional 1.85 million MT of rice supply.
The PSA also reported that agriculture and fisheries sector remained resilient despite challenges faced in 2023, posting a 0.7 percent growth in terms of production value.
Livestock and poultry sectors recorded growth of 2.7 percent and 7.8 percent in terms of value, respectively, even with the continuing cases of African swine flu and avian influenza.
Crop production, which shares a majority of 58.7 percent of the total value of production in agriculture and fisheries, exhibited a 0.1 percent growth as compared to last year, he said.
Philippine farm output barely moved in 2023, showing signs of flat growth at 0.4 percent with value reaching P1.76 trillion from P1.75 trillion in 2022.
The value of crop production, amounting to P290 billion at constant 2018 prices, was 0.1 percent higher compared to the previous year’s P289.5 billion. It shared 58.7 percent to the total value of production in agriculture and fisheries. The value of palay crop inched up by 0.2 percent, while the value of corn production dropped by 1.8 percent.
Tiu Laurel meanwhile met with highland vegetable industry stakeholders at the Benguet Agri-Pinoy Trading Center to help famers find ways to further develop the farm sector and raise income in the Cordillera region.
“This is a consultation to create policies that suit your industry which will deem will be instrumental to achieve the food goals of President Marcos for a new Philippines.This will be a new direction to improve the lives of Filipinos,” Tiu Laurel said.
