ILOILO CITY — For the year 2022, Western Visayas region is eyeing to produce at least 2.48 million metric tons of rice.
This is as the Department of Agriculture (DA-6) wants to surpass the 2.35 million metric tons of rice produced for the year 2021, which was a 2.67-percent increase in comparison to the rice rice production of the year 2020.
“But the palay production for the year 2021 went below the targeted 2.5 million metric tons,” noted Elmer B. Cabusas, DA-6 ‘s rice program coordinator.
This was due to the havoc caused by Typhoon Odette last December 2021 and damaged 143,949.37 metric tons of rice.
Based on DA-6 data, production volume in irrigated areas reached 1.13 million metric tons while another 1.22 million metric tons were produced along rain-fed ecosystem.
Based on area, Iloilo province still maintained as the top rice producer in Western Visayas region for 2021 with more than 1 million metric tons. This meant that Iloilo province had 196.59- percent sufficiency in the rice hybridization program.
Negros Occidental province ranked second with 483,534 metric tons of rice produced.
Rice production was 383,809.56 metric tons for Capiz province; 302,746 metric tons for Antique province; 106,547.11 metric tons for Aklan province; and 61,276.75 metric tons for Guimaras province.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) is targeting to distribute inbred seeds for the upcoming wet cropping season.