The Department of Agriculture (DA) is targeting to harvest 14.9 million metric tons (MT) of rice by 2004, a level that brings the Philippines to a 97 percent sufficiency rate, which should bring rice importation down to as low as 290,000 MT in 2004 compared to the 890,000 MT imports this year.

Agriculture Secretary Luis P. Lorenzo Jr. told the Round table Forum at the Manila Pavilion that government is targeting a 97 percent rice sufficiency for 2004. This production, he said, should push down imports for 2004 to just half of what was imported in 2003.

"The Department will work with the rice sector to try to achieve a 97 percent self-sufficiency," he said.

Frisco M. Malabanan, DA rice program director, said the Philippines' rice consumption for 2004 is estimated at 15.4 million unmilled rice (palay), and a 97 percent sufficiency is equivalent to 14.9 million MT.

At 14.9 million MT, government needs to raise output by 1.44 million MT from the predicted 2003 output of 13.46 million MT. The increase represents a 10.7 percent growth from 2003 to 2004.

Malabanan said that to raise rice production, DA has proposed a P1.7 billion budget that will enable expansion of certified and hybrid rice seed planting.

"We are making available certified rice seed to farmers. The data we got showed that yield from certified seed can be 4.5 metric tons per hectare. We have been originally targeting hybrid rice (to be planted on) 300,000 hectares. If there are enough seeds to be produced by growers and if the budget will be given to us, we are hoping to expand this to 500,000 to 600,000 hectares. But of course the budget has to go through the senate and the bicameral conference," he said.

Malabanan said national average yield from hybrid rice during the last dry season reached around 6.2 to 6.5 per hectare, about two times the national average yield of three MT per hectare. Aside from the propagation of high-yielding varieties, he said DA needs the P1.7 billion budget for research and development, training of farmers, and information dissemination.

Gregorio Y. Tan Jr., deputy administrator of the National Food Authority (NFA), said that with DA's target to cut rice imports by 50 percent in 2004, he said imports may go down to just 450,000 MT or half of 890,000 MT in 2003. However, Malabanan said that given a 97 percent rice sufficiency, shortfall will only amount to 290,000 MT in milled form.

Tan said that for 2003, NFA imported a total of 650,000 while Bureau of Customs records showed that farmers brought in 180,000 MT. Government also availed of the United States PL 480 commodity loan that brought in 60,000 MT of rice, bringing imports to 890,000 MT which is a 26 percent reduction from 2002 imports of 1.206 million MT.

Tan said that for NFA to help DA's rice sufficiency program, NFA should be able to acquire drying facilities. He said the drying facilities will enable farmers to bring down moisture content in rice to 14 percent from around 24 percent, and this will enable them to store rice for a longer period and thus position for higher prices.

However, he said that government only allots to NFA P900 million despite its request for a P4 to P5 billion budget. With a higher budget, he said NFA will be able to buy palay from farmers at a higher price compared to offered price by traders, sell rice to poorer customers at a lower price, and still perform other functions of drying, storing, and helping cut down post harvest losses of the rice sector.