Palay, corn production dropped in 2010

THE country’s palay and corn production in 2010 slightly dropped from their respective levels from the previous year as a prolonged dry spell brought by the El Niño phenomenon took its toll on staple crops, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said on Friday.

In a report, the DA-Bureau of Agriculture Statistics (BAS) said that palay (unmilled rice) and corn production for 2010 went down by 3.04 percent and 9.34 percent from their respective levels in 2009.

It cited the prolonged dry spell brought about by El Niño that hit the country during the year.

Super Typhoon Juan, which struck the country in October, also contributed to the decline in production, BAS said.

Based on documents, total palay production reached 15.77 million metric tons, or 3.04 percent below the 16.27 million metric tons output in 2009. There was also a 3.93-percent reduction in the area harvested.

Decreases in palay output in the first three quarters of 2010 were attributed to the adverse effects of El Niño.

It was in the fourth quarter when palay production recorded a positive growth of 21.11 percent.

“This was a recovery from the adverse effects of Typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng in 2009 and was partly attributed to the movement of cropping from the third quarter to fourth quarter this year due to prolonged drought,” BAS said.

Corn production for calendar year 2010 was 6.38 million metric tons, or 9.3 percent below last year’s level of 7.03 million metric tons.

This was attributed to contraction in harvest area by 6.9 percent and a decline in yield per hectare by 2.6 percent.

Meanwhile, the agency forecast an increase in palay and corn output for the first half of this year, despite damage caused by flashfloods in Southern Leyte, Lanao del Norte and Agusan del Sur in early January.

Palay production may increase by 3.56 percent, while corn production may also grow by 2.32 percent.

Total palay production in January to June 2011 may reach 7.64 million metric tons, 15.4 percent higher than the previous year’s level of 6.62 million metric tons.

The increase could be attributed to the expansion in harvest area by 9.6 percent, or by 174,300 hectares from the 1.82 million hectares in the previous year. Yield per hectare may also improve from 3.64 metric tons to 3.83 metric tons.

Corn production from January to June 2011 may reach 3.29 million metric tons, 36.3-percent higher than its 2010 level following a 15.6 percent, or
150,600ha of expansion in harvest area and 18.0-percent improvement in yield per hectare that are expected in Cagayan Valley and Region XII in Mindanao.

DA-BAS chief Minda Mangabat said that the Agriculture department is consulting the National Food Authority (NFA) to determine whether rice import targets this year would be affected.

NFA Administrator Angelito Banayo earlier said that they plan to sharply cut rice imports this year because NFA has a lot of the grain in storage.
The department set an import ceiling of 1.5 million metric tons last year, but data from the NFA’s website said that 2.13 million metric tons of rice were actually shipped into the country in the same period.

President Benigno Aquino 3rd has asked Banayo to look into alleged anomalies in rice importation during the past Arroyo administration. –JAMES KONSTANTIN GALVEZ REPORTER WITH REPORT FROM AFP