Aklan remains rice surplus producer despite El Nino

BY BOY RYAN B. ZABAL

KALIBO, Aklan – Aklan remains a surplus rice producer, although, the province's agriculture decreased in terms of average palay production in metric tons.
Provincial Agriculturist William Castillo said the low rice production was attributed to the effects of El Nino weather condition and the onslaught of brown plant hoppers or locally known as "waya-waya" in rice lands.

The palay production, he said, has decreased by 25 percent to 105,000 metric tons compared from 140,000 metric tons in year 2009. Further, the palay production losses was due to La Nina phenomenon that devastated large tracts of rice crops in Aklan.

"The province has a low rice production for the year 2010 compared to 2009, but still, Aklan is a surplus rice producer province. The 68,000 metric tons milled rice is enough for our rice consumers in Aklan," he explained.
Aklan Carlito Marquez, for his part, called on the public not to panic as the National Food Authority (NFA) has enough buffer stocks to last for 115 days or four months. The rice farmers also expect good harvest on mid-March and peak harvest occurs in April of this year to augment the local stock inventory of NFA.

According to Castillo, if every person consumes 122 kilograms of rice every year, the rice consumption is estimated at 63,000 metric tons for a population of 518,000 in Aklan.

Castillo said the province has an excess metric tons of 5,000 tons before the harvest season in the first quarter of 2011, although, 25 percent of the total rice lands in Aklan remained unplanted.

The provincial agriculturist also urged the local farmers to pray for good weather and harvest this year for rice production efficiency.