MARYBETH M.

MELENCION
PCA-Zamboanga Research Center
San Ramon, Zamboanga City

CONTRIBUTING FACTORS IN RICE DEFFICIENCY

1. Land-related Problem
The land allotted for rice production in Zamboanga City is shrinking, specifically in the irrigated
areas where reduction became evident as early as 2016. In that same year, the irrigated rice
areas were reduced by 3,254 hectares from 5,174 ha in 2015. The succeeding years (2017 &
2018) recorded roughly 300 ha of irrigated land was lost. The rain-fed rice areas are also
shrinking. In 2018, for example, saw a reduction of 70 hectares from 2017 data. However, there
was a spike in the increase of hectares planted in 2016. Rain-fed areas rose 8,978 by hectares
from 2015 but subsequently reduced by 8,978 ha in 2017.
Table 1. Rice production area in Zamboanga City (in hectares, Ha).

Reduction in sizeable areas of valuable irrigated rice farms is attributed to change in land use or
land conversion. These irrigated farmlands are usually located in flat terrain near population
centers which made these land covetable for housing or industrial use. A loophole in the land
conversion limitations should be corrected by preventing any form of conversion irrespective of
how many years the land had been left uncultivated for rice production.

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2. Agronomic Problem

a. Low yields

Average yields in Zamboanga City is 4.39 metric tons per hectare (2008-2020) (Table 2).
This is lower than the potential yields of up to 14 metric tons per hectare for newer rice
varieties.

Table 2. Rice production data showing the yearly damaged rice plantings and yields.

b. Cultivation damage
On the average, around 392 hectares (Table 2). No data is available as what caused the
damage that prevented full harvesting of planted rice. It can be speculated to be due to
pests, drought, and other climatic disturbances. If mitigated by provision of additional
irrigation facilities, ready credit for fertilizer and pesticides purchase, around 1,720.16
metric tons of rice can be saved (based on average yield of 4.39)

3. Post-harvest problems

Production losses is pegged at 15% of the total

production by the data sourced from the Zamboanga Table 3. Harvest losses in rice production in
Zamboanga City.
City Agriculturist Office (Table 4). This can be due to
NUMBER OF
POST HARVEST LOSSES MILLING RECOVERY ZAMBOANGUENOS
(MT), (Ave, 2008-2020) RATE, 65% (MT) THAT CAN BE FEED
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(MT)

4,232.94 2,751.41 23,121.11

lack of farm machineries mechanical harvesters, transport vehicles, mechanical dryers and
support infrastructures like silos. Average yearly post-harvest losses amounts to 4, 233
MT/year. If mitigated, it can feed 23,121 people for one year. (Philippine Statistics Authority as
cited by the Department of Agriculture, 2020 ).

Table 4. Rice production data of Zamboanga City showing various production losses
and effective production per year (milled rice).

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Table 5. Zamboanga City’s rice supply and demand situation (2008-2020).

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 4. Rising rice eating population & shrinking rice production area

Zamboanga City is mostly rice eating population with ninety-five percent (95%) of its resident’s
eats rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This further exerted pressure on the supply side
where its rice production areas are shrinking.

Graph 1. Rice-eating population of Zamboanga City. Graph 2. Rice production area of Zamboanga City.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The illusive self-sufficiency in rice can be achieved if the total land area devoted to rice production is
increased by 2.5 times the current land area for both the irrigated and rain-fed farmlands, increase the
production yield to 13MT/ha for irrigated using HYVs or 11MT for irrigated using inbred rice variety and
6MT/ha for rainfed areas, and reduce the post-harvest losses to 5%. These changes, including the
associated support for infrastructure and regulations, can increase the rice sufficiency to 132% for
rainfed and irrigated farms using HYVs or 115% for rainfed and irrigated farms using inbreed rice
varieties. However, rice production is dependent of interrelating factors, there are necessary changes
that must be in place for the projection to be realized.

Table 6. Projected rice production scenario for Zamboanga City – Increase in area and type of rice
varieties to be used.

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Table 7. Projected rice production scenario for Zamboanga City – Rice sufficiency outcome.

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 1. Increase in rice production area

The rice production areas in Zamboanga City in 2018 is reported to be 7,918 hectares broken
down to 5,391 ha (irrigated) and 2,527 (rainfed) (PSA, 2018). This is slightly higher than the
5,494 hectares data reported by the Office of the City Agriculturist (Appendix 1) for the same
year and with the reported rice sufficiency of merely 11 percent. This rice sufficiency can be
increased to 132% or 115% depending of the type of seed that will be used.

2. Increase the production yield to 13 MT/Ha

Rice production data from 2008 to 2020 in Zamboanga City ranges from 3.16 MT (2020) to
5.46MT (2019. This is just close to the median yield of new rice varieties whose yields reach as
high as 14MT per year.

Based on the data from Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), from the Zamboanga City
Agriculturist graciously provided by Mrs. Carmencita Sanchez, and from pinoyrice.com
(https://www.pinoyrice.com/rice-varieties/), farmers can select from varieties that will be
suitable for their farm: irrigated lowland, hybrid (Table 8), irrigated lowland inbred (Table 9),
rainfed lowland (Table 10 ), upland and saline conditions (Table 11).

Top rice varieties that have high potential yield are: 1) For irrigated lowland is 14MT (hybrid,
Mestiso 74), 2) irrigated lowland, inbred 14MT (Tubigan 26), 3) rainfed lowland 6.7MT (Sahod
Ulan 3)

Table 8. Recommended rice varieties for irrigated lowland (Hybrid).

Table 9. Recommended rice varieties for irrigated lowland (Inbred).

Table 10. Recommended rice varieties for rainfed lowland farmlands (dry seeded).

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Table 11. Recommended rice varieties for upland and saline farmlands

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 3. Reduce production losses to 5 percent

Production losses can be reduced if proper harvesting, drying, and storing machineries are
provided to farmers. Table 3 shows that although small relative the whole rice production
volume, it may still help augment the rice requirement of 23,121 Zamboanganeos for a whole
year.

4. Assistance from Zamboanga City LGU

The abovementioned recommendation can only be achieved at the shortest time if adequate
assistance will be provided to rice farmers. These may include:

a. Good quality seeds. These seeds are expensive and thus the need for assistance in the
procurement. It is further recommended that high yielding inbred rice seeds be used as
subsequent seeds can be reused by farmers without any loss of yield potential. Hybrid
seeds are also recommended but one has to buy new seeds every planting season.

b. Expansion of water irrigation facilities to cover all lowland farmers. This can be in the form
of traditional dam or water catchments or with the use of solar-powered micro irrigation
systems.

c. Provision of mechanical harvesters, threshers, blowers, and most importantly dryers will
help reduce the processing losses

d. Credit facilities for fertilizer and pesticides.

REFERENCES

Sanchez, C. 2021. Supply and Demand data for Rice. Office of the City Agriculturist, Zamboanga City

Rice supply adequate for 2020. https://www.da.gov.ph/rice-supply-adequate-for-2020/

PhilRice.2021. PalyStatQ. https://dbmp.philrice.gov.ph/palaystat/statistics/retrieve/table/1

High-Yielding Varieties Key to Rice Self-Sufficient Philippines. http://rfu07.da.gov.ph/index.php/2012-03-

27-12-04-15/2012-04-17-09-30-59/986-high-yielding-varieties-key-to-rice-self-sufficient-philippines

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 Page 10 of 10
OFFICE OF THE CITY AGRICULTURIST
ZAMBOANGA CITY
SUPPLY AND DEMAND
RICE
Zamboanga City
SEED
POPULATION AREA AREA ACTUAL REQUIREMENT POST HARVEST NET PRODUCTION EFFECTIVE DEMAND DEFICIT
Year Population 90% Rice Eating PLANTED HARVESTED PRODUCTIONS 40 Kgs/ha. LOSSES (15%) (M.T) SUPPLY 65% (MT) (MT) % Suffi ceincy
(HA) (HA) (MT) Milling Recovery
Rate (M.T.)
2008 774,407 696,966 7,087 6,658 30,885 283 4,628 25,943 16,863 77,398 (60,535) 22
2009 796,026 718,223 6,823 6,554 32,172 273 4,826 27,073 17,597 80,153 (62,556) 22
2010 807,129 726,416 6,650 6,352 31,649 266 4,747 26,636 17,313 80,669 (63,355) 21
2011 831,746 748,571 9,128 7,988 35,849 283 5,377 30,189 19,623 83,129 (63,506) 24
2012 857,114 771,403 7,683 8,107 37,855 307 5,678 31,870 20,715 85,664 (64,949) 24
2013 883,255 794,930 7,636 6,172 27,664 305 4,150 23,209 15,086 88,277 (73,191) 1
2014 910,184 819,175 7,607 7,327 32,506 304 4,876 27,326 17,762 90,969 (73,208) 20
2015 861,799 775,619 4,330 4,821 23,054 173 3,458 19,423 12,625 86,133 (73,508) 15
2016 872,658 785,392 6,285 5,453 24,046 3,607 20,439 13,285 89,743 (76,458) 15
95% eating
2017 883,653 839,470 5,157 5,132 23,829 3,574 20,255 13,166 95,909 (82,744) 14
2018 894,788 850,049 5,494 4,975 22,474 3,371 19,103 1,241 97,118 (84,701) 13
2019 906,082 860,759 4,506 5,381 24,591 3,689 20,902 13,586 98,342 (84,755) 14
2020 91,748 871,604 6,412 4,783 20,281 3,042 17,239 11,205 99,581 (88,376) 11
2021