Negros Oriental has a high sufficiency level of rice production and the local agriculture office foresees an even higher rice yield this year, provincial agriculturist Gregorio Paltinca disclosed yesterday.

He said that the current sufficiency in rice production of the province is pegged at 61 percent, and that, this can go up to 70 percent this year due to the good weather conditions in the past months.

About 14,000 hectares in the province are planted to rice, Paltinca said.

The average production is 3.5 tons per hectare or 70 bags per hectare and some farmers can even produce up to 100 bags per hectare, he added.

The rice production level of the province has not decreased over the years, and it is supported by the volume of water, Paltinca explained. He also said that part of this rice yield is brought by some traders to the provinces of Cebu and Negros Occidental.

The National Food Authority, aside from distributing rice is also procuring the yield from farmers, but some farmers find the requirement of the agency bothersome, Paltinca said.

Information officer Rolando Lazalita of the NFA said that grains bureau has set these requirements to ensure the quality of rice they will procure.

To lessen the burden on farmers and encourage them to sell their produce to NFA, it is offering incentives, one of which is free transport of palay that has passed NFA’s quality control testing, he said.

Farmers who wish to sell palay to NFA can also call up their office and NFA will send a classifier to check on it. If the farmers deliver the produce themselves, the NFA will pay them a delivery fee of 10 centavos per kilo, Lazarita said.*RG

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