TACLOBAN CITY – The province of Leyte posted the highest rice production in the region last year, a report from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA-8) said.
Wilma Perante, PSA regional director, told Leyte Samar Daily Express that Leyte produced the highest volume of palay (fresh from the farm not yet milled rice or unmilled rice) at 481,487 metric tons which comprised 50.9 percent of the total palay production of the region.
Eastern Samar, meanwhile, had the lowest volume of production at 59,754 MT accounting for only 6.3 percent, she added.
Perante also said that regional palay production plummeted by one percent from 954,844 MT in 2016 to 945,565 MT in 2017.
She added that the total harvest area for palay in the region, on the other hand, inched up by 1.8 percent, from 268,110 hectares in 2016 to 272,889 hectares in 2017.
Increase in palay area harvested were observed among all provinces, except for Biliran and Southern Leyte which exhibited decreased of 2.6 percent and 2.4 percent, respectively.
The PSA director said that Leyte recorded more than two-fifths or 43.4 percent (481,487 hectares) of the total palay area harvested in 2017, while Biliran contributed the least (14,383 hectares) accounting for only 5.3 percent.
Yield for palay in the region went down by 2.7 percent, from 3.6 MT per hectare in 2016 to 3.5 MT per hectare in 2017, Perante said.
Perante said that among the provinces, Biliran posted the highest yield per hectare at 4.5 MT per hectare in 2017. Eastern Samar registered the lowest yield per hectare at 2.6 MT per hectare.
(RESTITUTO A. CAYUBIT)
