Sources of decade rice yield growth in the Philippines

Issue Date

8-2011

Abstract

Data from Bureau of Agricultural Statistics have shown that the Philippines had a 30% rice yield growth within 1997-2007, Le, from 2.93-3.80 t ha-1. The growth in yield is remarkable considering that there have been no new 'revolutionary' technologies that were developed, nor introduced within this decade. This study looked at the trends in productivity growth in the national and regional levels of rice farming and examined the factors affecting yield, including the changing pattern in farmers' crop management practices, technology adoption, and input use. Understanding the sources of yield growth in the country is timely in the long-term effort to attain rice self-efficiency. The analysis used secondary data and farm-level cross-sectional survey data sets for 3 time periods: 1996/97, 2001/02, and 2006/07, covering nearly 2,000 rice farmers across the country. Across regions, seasons, and ecosystems, rice yields in the Philippines have grown in these decades. The major factors that contributed to this yield increase are the adoption of high quality seeds, particularly certified seeds, and irrigation. Regression analysis showed a clear impact of irrigation and certified seeds, both to productivity and net income from rice farming. The results also corroborated previous research findings that farmers in irrigated farms were getting a much higher yields and profits than in rainfed farms. The use of certified seeds is related to a significant positive increase in yields and farm profits. The use of other farm inputs such as: fertilizer, pesticide, herbicide, labor, has not changed significantly to positively impact the growth in rice yield. With limited budget to raise productivity, the government should concentrate its effort in two major yield increasing factors. Firstly, to ensure access to certified seeds all over the Philippines. There should be a concerted and systematic effort to support and encourage certified seed production of progressive farmers to guarantee continuous and timely supply of certified seeds in rice production areas. Secondly, is the seed to expand irrigated areas through construction of new but low cost irrigation system or the rehabilitation of old irrigation systems to expand its service areas.

Source or Periodical Title

Philippine Journal of Crop Science

ISSN

0115-463x

Volume

36

Issue

2

Page

20-29

Document Type

Article

Frequency

tri-quarterly

Physical Description

tables, graphs

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