Philippines eyes bumper rice harvest next year

Philippines eyes bumper rice harvest next year

The Philippines aims to reap a record high harvest of at least
13 million tons of unmilled rice next year in a bid to reduce
imports, officials said on Friday.

Agriculture Secretary Leonardo Montemayor said the government
plans to intensify the distribution of higher yielding seeds to
boost production of the country's staple from this year's
estimated harvest of 12.85 million tons.

The Philippines, one of Asia's largest rice importers, bought
769,000 tons of rice overseas this year, including 104,000 tons
bought under a soft loan agreement with the U.S. government.

The country, which has been importing rice since 1983 to fill
an annual shortfall in local production, currently consumes
around 24,000 tons of the grain per day.

Montemayor said the country's unmilled rice production this
year was likely to hit 12.85 million tons, a slight reduction
from an earlier estimate of 12.95 million tons because of the
damage wrought by storm Lingling last week.

The Philippines produced 12.4 million tons of unmilled rice
last year, thanks to good weather and also the distribution by
the government of higher yielding seeds.

The Philippines has about 2.6 million hectares of rice-lands,
of which half have access to irrigation facilities.

With the prospect of a bumper harvest next year, officials
said they expected rice imports to be lower. --Reuters