San Fernando, Pampanga—Central Luzon, the rice granary of the country, continues to have bountiful harvests despite markets being flooded by imported rice.
Benjamin Balthazar, operations officer of the Department of Agriculture in Central Luzon said about 200,000 farmers in the region have started harvesting their palay since last month.
“We are expecting to harvest about 3.6 million metric tons, especially this season,” Balthazar said.
The top palay producers in the region remain in Nueva Ecija, which is contributing 50 percent of the production, followed by Tarlac, Pampanga, Bulacan, Zambales and Bataan in order.
Despite the bountiful harvest, farmers continue to lose profits due to the low farmgate prices of rice, which is pegged at P11 to P 13 per kilo and P 19 for clean rice per kilo.
Farmers in the region are cultivating an estimated 400,000 hectares of land across six provinces.
According to Baltazar, farmers need to invest P12 to produce a kilo of rice.
To assist them, the DAR continues to organize the Rice Processing Complex, which aims to market their produce directly to customers instead of rice traders to minimize farmers’ losses.
At present, there are 18 rice complexes operating in the region, Baltazar said, as farmers also received equipment like dryers, seeds, and other farming aids.
He admitted that the region lacks rice dryers for the farmers to use.
In a related development, the provincial government of Pampanga distributed a total of 28 carabaos in the province to help farmers to augment their income.
Dr. Augusto Baluyut, provincial veterinary officer, said the carabaos were distributed in Candaba, Arayat, Mexico, Sta. Ana, Porac, Lubao, Sta. Rita, Magalang, and the city of San Fernando.
Baluyut said the carabao dispersal is a joint project of Gov. Dennis Pineda and the Department of Agriculture Field Office 3.