TACLOBAN CITY – The province of Leyte produced the high volume of palay in Eastern Visayas for the fourth quarter of 2018, a report from the regional office of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said.
Wilma Perante, PSA regional director, told Leyte Samar Daily Express in an interview said that among the provinces, Leyte produced the highest volume of palay at 151,805 metric ton(MT) which comprised more than half (52.2 percent) of the total palay production in the region.
Eastern Samar, meanwhile, had the lowest volume of production (17,946 MT) accounting for only 6.2 percent.
Perante reported that the palay production of the region slightly decreased to 290,871 metric tons (MT) in the 4th quarter of 2018 from 293,419 MT in the 4th quarter of 2017, a decline by 0.9 percent.
“Decreases were observed among all provinces, except in Samar and Leyte, which posted increases at 17.0 percent and 2.6 percent, respectively. Northern Samar recorded the highest decrease in production by 35.8 percent, from 31,141 MT in the 4th quarter of 2017 to 20,000 MT in the 4th quarter of 2018,” Perante said.
The total area harvested for palay in the region went down by 1.2 percent, from 78,949 hectares in the 4th quarter of 2017 to 78,017 hectares in the 4th quarter of 2018. Northern Samar contributed largely to this decrease posting a drop of 36.7 percent, Perante added.
Leyte recorded almost half or 47.8 percent (37,298 hectares) of the total area harvested for palay during the quarter in review, while Eastern Samar contributed the least (4,931 hectares) accounting for only 6.3 percent, the source said.
Perante also reported that the yield per hectare for palay in the region slightly increased by 0.3 percent, from 3.72 MT per hectare in the 4th quarter of 2017 to 3.73 MT per hectare in the same quarter of 2018.
Among the provinces, Biliran posted the highest yield per hectare during the quarter in review at 4.44 MT per hectare, while Samar registered the lowest at 2.79 MT per hectare, she said.
(RESTITUTO A. CAYUBIT)
