Rice production seen to hit 18m tons in 2010

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Gạo Thơm

Fri, 30/07/2010 - 1:55 am.

Rice production seen to hit 18m tons in 2010

The government expects rice production to hit between 17.4 million metric tons and 18 million MT this year despite a mild dry spell.“We actually submitted two targets. Based on a reenacted 2009 budget, we expect production to be 17.4 million MT but if the higher budget is approved, we might reach 18 million MT and possibly more,” said rice program director Frisco Malabanan at the sidelines of a forum. The lower end of the target is based on an irrigation budget of about P3.1 billion while the higher end assumes a higher allocation of P6 billion to P7 billion.

“These [figures] are tentative because we do not have an approved budget as of today. We’ll just making estimates, we’ll have some sort of direction for the beginning of the year,” said Malabanan.

He added the current mild El Niño weather phenomenon would not affect the palay, or unmilled rice, forecast for the year.

“There is a mild El Niño [bit] we have already planted 60 percent to 65 percent. Palay crop is nearing the maturing stage, so more or less were almost done with the dry cropping season,” said Malabanan.

The government has not released the numbers on rice production last year. It has forecast rice production to reach 16.4 million MT in 2009.

Malabanan said the the current rice program would “help in attaining the food sufficiency target in 2013.”

“I not see any reason why we cannot attain that. I still believe it is doable but we also have to factor in the availability and release of the needed resources to do this as well as the change in leadership,” he said.