THE production of palay in Davao Region as of the first quarter of the year has increased by 19.61 percent to 146,468 metric tons (MT) from only 122,458 MT for the first quarter of 2017 with Davao del Sur as the top producer.
As per the data of the Philippine Statistics Authority, the production of irrigated palay, where most of the produce of the region comes from, had gone up by 17.70 percent to 134,260 MT from 114,075.00 MT same period last year. Most of the irrigated palay come from Davao del Sur with 61,869 MT of production for 2018. It was then followed by Davao del Norte which produced 32,305 MT of palay, Compostela Valley with 23,740 MT, Davao Oriental with 13,320 MT, and Davao City with 3,026 MT.
There is also a recorded increase of 45.63 percent for the production of rainfed palay. This first quarter of 2018, the region was able to produce 12,208 MT rainfed palay as compared to the 8,383 MT rainfed palay that was produced on the same period in 2017.
Most of the rainfed palays are produced from Compostela Valley with recorded production of 5,053MT, followed by Davao Oriental which was able to produce 4,392 MT, Davao del Norte with 1,866 MT, and Davao City with 897 MT. There are no recorded rainfed palay produced from Davao del Sur.
Generally, as of the first quarter of the year, the top producer is Davao del Sur, followed by Davao del Norte, Compostela Valley, Davao Oriental, and Davao City.
In a separate interview with National Food Authority Davao Manager Leonila V. Selpa, she said the city is currently has enough stocks of commercial rice. This, she said, will still help sustain and cater to the demand of the city even when there are no available NFA rice stocks in their warehouse.
She said they are, however, expecting a nationwide arrival of 100,000 MT of NFA rice by the end of the month. There is also a scheduled 100,000 MT by June 15 and 50,000 MT by June 30. These will all be distributed to different NFA branches nationwide.