The Department of Agriculture Regional Field Unit 6 aims to increase rice production in Western Visayas to 2.2 million metric tons in 2008, regional director Larry Nacionales said.

The 2007 target was pegged at only 1.99 million metric tons, but the region already surpassed its target production in 2007 by November since production during the first 11 months last year was already estimated at 1.99 million metric tons.

Nacionales said the increase in rice production will be the immediate concern of DA 6 this year to help address the insufficient rice supply in the country.

But Western Visayas in itself is rice-sufficient and was, in fact, posted a 109 percent rice sufficiency in 2006 when its total production was 1.987 million metric tons.

In 2007, Nacionales said, rice production in the second half offset the decrease in production during the first half.*

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