PSA lowers Q1 palay, corn output estimates
Credit to Author: The Manila Times| Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2019 16:27:50 +0000
First quarter palay (unmilled rice) and corn output estimates have been lowered by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), with revised figures going separate ways compared to the same period last year.
In an update released on Monday, the PSA said January-March palay production likely fell to 4.56 million metric tons (MMT) based on standing crops, lower than the January projection of 4.65 MMT and down from the 4.65 MMT seen a year earlier.
Corn output was estimated to have hit 2.51 MMT, also lower compared to January’s 2.55 MMT but higher than last year’s 2.46-MMT result.
The rice harvest area, meanwhile, likely contracted by 3.5 percent from 1.95 million hectares last year, the PSA added, but yields could have increased to 3.96 MT per hectare from the year-earlier 3.87 MT.
“Of the updated standing crop, 41.2 percent of 1,165.15 thousand hectares have been harvested,” the agency said.
For corn, the harvest area also likely contracted to 707,000 hectares from 722,000 hectares last year while yields also improved to 3.54 MT per hectare from 3.43 MT previously.
“Around 453.30 thousand hectares or 63.9 percent of the updated standing crop have been harvested,” the PSA said.
The bulk of the standing palay crop is in the vegetative stage while most of the standing corn crop is in the maturing stage, the agency noted.
Planting intentions for the quarter have yet to be fully realized, it added, with the proportions at 89.2 percent for palay and 76 percent for corn.
FROM A REPORT BY EIREENE JAIREE GOMEZ
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