The Department of Agriculture (DA) said rice production across the country is expected to hit 20 million metric tons in 2023.
The projected production is based on data compiled by the Philippine Statistics Authority tracking three quarters worth of harvests.
Compared to output of only 19.756 million MT harvested from 4,804,591 hectares (ha) in 2022, this year’s rice production will likely hit 20.143 million MT reaped from 4,816,933 ha.
The DA said areas planted to rice also slightly increased by 12,342 hectares this year.
According to the DA, rice production from irrigated areas rose from 14,938,689 MT in 2022 to 15,328,462 MT in 2023 while production in rain fed areas slightly dropped from 4,818,704 MT in 2022 to 4,814,124 MT due mainly to a decline in harvest area from 1,463,680 in 2022 to 1,431,95 ha in 2023.
The DA said that palay or unhusked rice production from both irrigated and rain fed areas slightly rose from 4.47 tons per hectare in 2022 to 4.53 MT/ha. this year. As for rain fed areas, yield was up from 3.29 MT/ha in 2022 to 3.36 MT/ ha in 2023.
Leo Sebastian, DA undersecretary for rice industry development, is optimistic of record high rice production this year despite the expected impact of the El Niño phenomenon.
In 2021, rice production hit a record 19.96 million MT but dropped to only 19.76 million MT last year.
