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Philippines Assures Sufficient Supply Of Rice

MANILA, Aug 9 Asia Pulse - Philippine Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap on Wednesday assured that the country has enough supply of rice despite the dry spell that has severely affected thousands of hectares of ricefields in rice-producing areas in Luzon. "We would like to assure the public that rice supply and prices are expected to remain stable because the National Food Authority (NFA) has already reported adequate buffer stocks," he said. Yap said rice stocks at the NFA warehouses is more than sufficient to supply up to December this year. He, however, warned unscrupulous grains traders that their licenses would be revoked by the NFA should they take advantage of the current situation to unduly jack up retail prices of the food staple. Yap emphasized that the country needs sustained rainfalls to be able to soak wet the dry lands of Regions I, II and III, believed to be most affected by the current dry spell. In an interview early Thursday morning, he said that "the rains we are having now that have helped lower the temperature in Metro Manila is still not enough to water the farmlands of rice-producing provinces such as Isabela, La Union, Pangasinan, Nueva Ecija and others which are only experiencing minimal rain showers." "We need a total of 5,000 litres or eight drums of water in order to produce a kilo of rice," the Department of Agriculture chief said. "We need at least five to six hours of continuous rains daily for two to three weeks just to soak our rice fields and prepare our rice lands for planting," he added. The agriculture chief said even with the dry spell caused by the 40 per cent drop in average rainfall, there is no need to ask for additional imports of rice at this moment. The government allocated 1.5 million metric tons of rice imports to serve as buffer stock for the year.   (PNA)

 

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