MANILA - The government believes that its efforts to improve agricultural production will not go to waste as it expects the country's palay (paddy rice) and corn harvests to reach record levels this year.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) said palay and corn harvests are likely to hit record levels of 17.45 million metric tons and 7.09 million MT this year, respectively. The latest forecasts show respective growths of 3.77% and 2.26% from last year's harvests.

According to Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, the DA's initiatives under President Arroyo's FIELDS program have led to the expansion of planting areas for palay, corn, and other crops. For the full year, the DA is looking at palay and corn yields of 3.79 MT and 2.6 MT, respectively.

"The increase in yields is a result of the expansion area harvested by 143,000 hectares, which is 3.21% bigger than last year's 4.46 million hectares," Yap said in a report to President Arroyo.

FIELDS is President Arroyo's flagship initiative to ensure food security and sufficiency for the country. The program enumerates 6 areas where government support is needed, which are fertilizer, irrigation and other rural infrastructure such as farm-to-market roads, extension and education services for farmers, loans, dryers and other post-harvest facilities, and seeds and other genetic materials.

For the second semester of 2009, Yap said palay output is likely to grow by 3.90% from the same period last year. Area harvested is seen to expand by 2.90%, while yield is projected to increase by 0.98%.

Palay production for the third quarter is seen to rise by 3.65% to 3.59 million MT this year, while output for the last 3 months of the year is expected to grow 4.04% to 6.48 million MT.

"Palay production for July-September may reach 3.59 million metric tons, 3.65% above last year's 3.47 million metric tons. This forecast is due to expansion in area harvested and increased yield in rainfed farms," Yap said, adding that rains from recent typhoons have enabled farmers to plant more.

Corn output, on the other hand, is projected to increase by 6.36% in the second half of 2009, with area harvested expanding by 2.69% and yield per hectare rising by 3.57%.

For the third quarter, the DA said the country's corn harvest is likely to grow by 9.51% to 2.47 million MT, while production for the last quarter is seen to rise by 1.21% compared to the same period in 2008.

"The July-September corn production is forecast at 2.47 million metric tons, up by 9.51% from last year's 2.26 million metric tons," Yap said, adding that the expected gains is largely due to the 5.26% expansion in area harvested.