By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – The rice industry is in peril as production of the staple food in the Philippines has been declining in the last two years, an agriculturalist said in a recently released report.
Finesa Cosico, an agriculturist and member of Agham (Advocates of Science and Technology for the People), cited figures from the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics showing that corn and rice production contracted last year.
Based on data from the bureau, from producing as much as 16.8 million metric tons (MT) of rice in 2008, the country only had a production of around 15.8 million metric tons production in 2010.
The same decrease in production happened to corn crop output in 2010. Total corn production went down by 9.34 percent from 7.0 million metric tons in 2009, to only 6.3 million metric tons last year.
Cosico said that there was a host of reasons that are cited for the drop in crop output.
A rice farmer in Davao del Sur. Agriculturist Finesa Cosico cites a host of reasons for the drop in output. (Photo by Karlos Manlupig / bulatlat.com)
“There are the effects of climate change and the vulnerability of our agricultural sector to both drought and rainfall. Then there’s the unabated land conversion for residential, commercial and industrial land and the replacement of staple food crops with high-value crops. These crops are grown mostly for export markets,” she said..... MORE
Source: Bulatlat.com
URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2011/03/11/philippine-rice-industry-in-peril-says-agriculturist/
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