Philippines targets 95% rice self-sufficiency in 2021

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines is eyeing to move a step closer to achieve full rice self-sufficiency as it targets to reach 95 percent rice adequacy by next year.

“We will aim to go nearer 95 percent rice sufficiency (in 2021). That’s what we will target,” Agriculture Secretary William Dar said in a virtual press briefing.

He said this goal could be achieved by enhancing every step of the rice production process, beginning from the planning to the implementation stages.

By the end of this year, Dar said the country would have a rice inventory to last for up to 88 days or good enough for three months of the country’s rice requirements.

The country was initially targeting a 93 percent rice self-sufficiency target this year but with the impact of the recent typhoons, Dar said this could go down to around 90 percent.

Dar earlier said the country had lost around 322,041 metric tons (MT) of palay (unhusked rice), roughly equivalent to an eight-day rice supply.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) previously targeted to produce 20.34 million MT of palay this year, which is eight percent more than the total harvest of 18.8 MMT in 2019.

“The rice sector has been doing well amid the pandemic. For the first three quarters, rice production reached 11.9 MMT, exceeding initial expectations. But then, the typhoons hit, affecting our major rice-producing provinces,” Dar said earlier.

DA National Rice Program (NRP) lead assistant secretary Andrew Villacorta expects rice production to reach 7.42 million MT in the last quarter of 2020. This will bring this year’s total palay output to 19.32 million MT, 2.7 percent more than in 2019.

Dar emphasized the government’s strong budgetary support for the rice sector, particularly with the P10-billion allocation under the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) and P15 billion from the components of the National Rice Program.

The DA earlier said rice production could hit 9.02 million MT from an aggregate of 1.149 million hectares nationwide in the first two quarters of 2021.

For the entire 2021, the DA is eyeing an initial 20.48 MMT of palay.