MANILA - The Philippines said on Wednesday that drought had caused the country's rice output to drop by about 300,000 tonnes, or a third higher than its estimate last month, and there was a risk heavy rains later in the year could inflict more crop damage.
The Philippines is one of the world's biggest importers of rice and there is a growing risk it will miss its target of producing 18 million tonnes after one of the three strongest El Nino weather patterns in the last 20 years.
"I'm sure there will be adjustment (in the target) because of this damage," Agriculture Undersecretary Emerson Palad told reporters. "But we haven't discussed it yet."
The damage report released by the Department of Agriculture also showed 204,245 tonnes of corn had been lost since February last year when an El Nino weather pattern emerged.
Government data showed rice paddy losses totaled 299,558 tonnes as of May 3, more than half the total losses of 540,469 tonnes during the last 2009-2010 El Nino.
This year alone, paddy losses were about 231,000 tonnes, Palad said, as he announced the agriculture department is planning to spend more on measures such as cloud-seeding in a bid to increase rainfall.
Palad put total agricultural losses both due to an El Nino and pest infestation since February last year at 8.7 billion pesos (6.5 billion baht).
The government had yet to discuss contingency measures for a possible La Nina, a weather pattern that sometimes follows an El Nino, that could bring strong rains and further damage crops later this year, Palad said.
Government data showed the Philippines had the lowest rice stocks since October in March despite importing 750,000 tonnes and its grains procurement agency has standby authority to ship an additional 500,000 tonnes to boost reserves if needed.
Domestic rice production in the first quarter to be announced next week could be about 8% lower than initially projected because of insufficient water and intense heat, based on the government's latest estimate.