MANILA – The Philippines may hit yet another record-high harvest for the second semester of the year, given favorable weather conditions, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said Tuesday.
This came after the country logged a historic-high harvest of 9.08 million metric tons (MT) from January to June, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
This is higher than the previous all-time high of 9.026 MT for the same period in 2023 and last year’s 8.53 million MT.
“For any indication na nare-receive natin, very positive tayo (that we are receiving, we are very positive) that we can surpass the 11.38 million metric tons, coming from a record-harvest ng (of) first semester,” Agriculture spokesperson Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa said in an interview.
With no extreme weather disturbances expected like La Niña, de Mesa said, “we are very hopeful that we can reach the target of 20.4 million metric tons” this year.
He earlier attributed the record-high palay output for the first half of the year to various government support, including agricultural inputs, farm mechanization, irrigation, and modernization, among others.
The palay harvested area also increased to more than 2.12 million hectares, higher than 2.065 million hectares for the same period in 2024, alongside increased cropping intentions among palay farmers, de Mesa added.
For now, he said the Philippines can “easily” surpass last year’s record-palay production.
“Assuming na 11 million metric tons lang tayo ng (that we will only have 11 million MT for the) wet season plus 9.08 million MT, that’s already 20.08, which is already over the 20.06 million metric tons harvested during 2023,” de Mesa said. (PNA)