Only 860,000 tons of imported rice needed

MANILA,Philippines (PNA) -- Malacanang said on Wednesday that only 860,000 metric tons of rice need to be imported this year, of which 660,000 metric tons will be done by the private sectors and the balance, by the National Food Authority.

Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda told a news briefing on Wednesday that this amount will be sufficient for the entire year in view of the expected good harvest by the Department of Agriculture.

Calling it a “realistic” volume of rice imports, Lacierda said the local production plus the imported rice will be more than sufficient to meet requirements which had traditionally been estimated at 1.3 million metric tons.

This is because, Lacierda said, the NFA and local traders normally maintain a buffer of 30 days of requirements.

Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala early this month reported that DA expects good summer harvest which will enable it to reduce rice imports until it reaches self sufficiency in the staple food by 2113.

“We are no longer the world’s biggest importer,” he proclaimed proudly during the opening of the DA 2012 internal budget hearing and planning workshop, attended by more than 100 DA top officials.

He said the country will import less than one million metric tons as contrasted to the two million tons imported in 2010.

Alcala said the prospects are bright as palay (paddy) production for the first semester of 2011 could reach 7.6 million tons, or 15 percent more than the production for the comparable period last year, as estimated by the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS).

The DA-BAS attributed the increase to the expansion in harvest area by 9.6 percent (equivalent to 174,300 hectares) from the 1.82 million hectares in 2010, and increase in average palay harvest per hectare to 3.8 tons (roughly 76 cavans of 50 kilos each) from last year’s 3.6 tons.

Alcala is optimistic that the successful repairs of irrigation systems, putting up more post harvest facilities and the construction of farm-to-market roads particularly in Mindanao will all prop up palay production to a target year-end level of 17.46 million tons.

(Source: http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/309857/only-860000-tons-imported-rice-needed-palace)