DA may review palay production forecast as fertilizer use drops by 30%

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture on Tuesday said it may have to change its palay production forecast this wet season following reports of a 30-percent drop in fertilizer use due to a steep increase in the cost of fertilizers. “We have to fine-tune our intervention measures and possibly review production forecasts," Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said. The DA had forecast total palay output of 17.32 million metric tons for 2008, or about 6.67% higher than last year’s record harvest volume of 16.24 million MT — by driving up output to 10 million-plus tons this wet season on top of the over 7.3 million-ton production during the dry crop season. However, many farmers were noted to have cut on their fertilizer use. Fertilizers account for about 30 percent of every farmer’s palay production expenses at any given planting season. Ideally, farmers have to use six bags of fertilizer to ensure harvests of around 4-7 tons per hectare. Figures provided by the militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) showed that as of June 2008, the average monthly price of urea fertilizer costs P1,754.31 per 50-kilogram. sack. It increased by 22.08% from the previous month's level and by 78.49% from the price in the same year. The average price of complete fertilizer for June was P1,835.27 per sack. This was up by 12.76% from the previous month's level and by 129.18% over the price in the same period a year ago. "The prices of urea and complete fertilizers are drastically and steadily increasing. It more than doubled in a year. And we're speaking here of fertilizers alone," said Anakpawis Rep Rafael Mariano, who also chairs the KMP. “Increasing prices of fertilizers will surely result to decreased production output unless the government moves to immediately arrest the problem head on," Mariano said. Yap said to cushion production targets setbacks the DA’s has alloted P1.29 billion as its share for the distribution among qualified farmer-beneficiaries of discount coupons worth P250 a piece and equivalent to 5.1 million bags of fertilizers. Under the program, the DA distributes these fertilizer coupons at a ratio of two coupons per hectare for every beneficiary. Local government units, in turn, put up counterpart funds to provide as many as four discount coupons, also worth P250 each, per hectare to the same farmer-beneficiaries in their respective localities. Yap said the DA is also carrying out two new incentive programs targeting extension workers and palay farmers to further boost harvests and beef up NFA inventories at the end of the wet planting season. The first program, he said, provides for the hefty increase in the monthly allowance of agricultural extension workers in municipal agricultural offices form P500 to P2,000 as an incentive for them to work harder in providing extension services to farmers this wet crop. He said the second incentive has to do with a cash bonanza of P1,800 for palay farmers for every 50 cavans of palay that they will sell to the NFA this wet harvest season at the recently adjusted palay support price of P17 a kilo. - GMANews.TV