MANILA, Philippines - After a number of revisions in its forecasts during the year, the Department of Agriculture has set its final rice production target for 2008 at 16.887 million metric tons, expanding by 3.98 percent year-on-year.

Last year, rice output reached 16.24 million MT.

Initially, the DA had projected rice production to hit 17.33 million MT. This, however, was revised thrice--to 16.94 million MT in August, 16.89 million MT in November and, finally, to 16.88 million in December.

The agriculture department blamed the rising costs of fertilizer, particularly in the third quarter, for the slower growth in rice production this year.

According to Frisco Malabanan, director of the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani rice program, the growth posted by the rice sector this year was mainly due to the expansion of areas planted to the grain and to the quick turnaround planting program.

Under the QTA program alone, an additional 26,588 hectares of land were planted to rice this year, Malabanan said.

Started in 2007, the QTA program is a planting scheme designed to mitigate the impact of a dry spell on rice harvests, particularly in Luzon. For 2008, however, the DA decided to continue with the program, by adding a third cropping season for rice. Normally, the farm sector observes only two planting seasons--the dry season, which begins in November and the wet or main planting season, which starts in June.

"With this and an array of other measures, the DA expects to attain a 3.98-percent growth in production by the end of the year," Malabanan said in his report.

Other measures that were implemented during the year included rehabilitation of nonfunctional irrigation facilities covering 16,275 hectares, and the restoration of facilities covering 29,465 hectares.

"The additional intervention measures to increase yields included the provision of postharvest drying facilities such as flatbed dryers to rice-producing provinces. The DA also encouraged farmers to use early-maturing varieties of both hybrid and inbred seeds," he added.

For 2009, Malabanan said the DA was projecting rice production to hit 17.81 million MT and to 18.63 million MT in 2010.

He said an intensified rice production program under the five-year Rice Self Sufficiency Plan could help the DA achieve not only its targets over the next two years, but also attain its bid for self-sufficiency by 2013.