Palay harvest starts in Iloilo
Palay harvest in Iloilo province has started although only minimal, Iloilo provincial rice program coordinator, Carmelo Oren, said.
Oren said municipalities such as Dingle were able to start harvest now because they used the Kabsaka technology, or the dry seeding, that allowed them to plant despite the dry spell or El Niño that hit their farms, which has caused the delay in the planting of many farmers.
The estimated area being harvested now is 700 hectares. The Iloilo province has 127,211 hectares of lowlands devoted to rice.
Oren said about 85 percent of Iloilo’s lowland area had been planted with rice, majority of which are now in reproductive stage or panicle initiation. Planting in the lowland has been delayed by around two months because of lack of water.
He said the one-million metric ton goal can no longer be achieved by December with a projection of some harvest shortfall.
But Iloilo province had always been sufficient with rice as it maintained a 185 percent rice sufficiency last year.*PNA
