‘Plant rice only in irrigated areas’
The Department of Agriculture 6 is advising rice farmers in the region to plant rice only in irrigated areas, a report of the Philippine News Agency said.
DA Regional Director Larry Nacionales said that farmers should reconsider planting rice on rain-fed areas to minimize and avoid crop loss.
This is a practical advice, especially with the onset of the second cropping season, he said.
Farms that are far from irrigated areas should not be planted with rice because the crop consumes too much water to reach full maturity.
The cost of rice production is very high and planting them on un-irrigated regions for the second cropping season would not be practical, Nacionales said.
He said that instead of rice, farmers should opt to plant corn, root crops and high value commercial crops in non-irrigated farms because this would be more economical and could save farmers a lot of money.
Root crops and corn have been proven more resilient and productive even with low water supply. Its prices are also stable in the market and could boost farmer’s income faster that rice produce. HVCC is also in demand as the third quarter of the year approaches.
Nacionales admitted that Western Visayas would not reach its rice target of around 2.3 million metric tons this year due to prolonged dry season.
Still it would be enough to support the current rice needs of the region, he said.
Western Visayas contributes around 14 percent to the national rice production annually.
This time however it will be lower due to low rice production, Nacionales said.
However, it will not affect rice prices, considering the vast amount of rice stocks of the National Food Authority, he added.*
