Rice production last year in Ilocos Region is up by 3.31% as reported by the Philippine Statistics Authority during the Rice Assessment and Planning Workshop held by the Department of Agriculture Regional Field Office 1 on May 8-11, 2023, in Caoayan, Ilocos Sur.

Ilocos region comes in at number four in terms of national production, contributing 9.5% of the nation’s overall output, or more than 1.9 million metric tons (mt).

With an output of 4.82 mt per hectare, the region ranks second in terms of yield.

As for provincial production, Pangasinan remains the top producer with more than 1.2 million mt followed by Ilocos Norte at 330, 749 mt, Ilocos Sur at 244,213.83 mt, and La Union at 171,276.53 mt.

“For this year, we have a lot of activities to do together to strengthen the performance and sustain the production parameters of the national rice program,” said DA-RFO1 Regional Executive Director Annie Q. Bares to the agricultural extension workers who were also present in the event.

At 63,000 mt and 0.17 mt/ha in 2022, Region 1 recorded the highest production and yield growth.

RED Bares has therefore drawn attention to the need for convergence in order to further increase the region’s rice production efficiency.

“Convergence is now our modality. We need convergence both in services and allied sectors especially with our Irrigators’ Associations (IAs) and Small Water Irrigation System Associations (SWISA). And with DA, we need to strengthen our partnership with the National Irrigation Administration as irrigation is extremely essential to rice production aside from other agricultural inputs,” explained RED Bares.

For the past five years, Ilocos region has remained among the top rice producing regions in the country.