CEBU CITY—The government is eyeing 98-percent national rice sufficiency by 2010 through a P43.7-billion program for the agriculture sector; and P4.15 billion has already been released to rehabilitate irrigation facilities and build new ones to expand services to more farmlands.

This was according to Presidential Management Staff chief Serge Remonde, who also told the Visayas Regional Development Council here that for the first time in decades, rice production is outpacing population growth.

He said that between 2001 and 2007, rice production hit 4 percent compared with the population growth of 2.04 percent. “It is only in this administration that our rice production is finally catching up with the population.”

The council adopted at its regular meeting resolutions committing to give counterpart funds to the Department of Agriculture fertilizer program, but only if the money is spent on organic fertilizer.

“The suppliers are already killing the land and they are also making a killing with the prices [of fertilizer],” said the council chairman, Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia of Cebu.

Gov. Emilio Macias II of Negros Oriental said they are teaching farmers in his province to create their own organic fertilizer. “We are looking at the long-term benefits for our people.”

MANILA - Good weather conditions probably meant better-than-expected rice production in the Philippines of about 7.3 million tons in the first half of the year, a senior agriculture official said on Monday.

"Higher rainfall this year allowed farmers to plant in wider areas, unlike last year when there was a drought," Romeo Recide, director of the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics, told Reuters.

Production of unmilled rice reached 7.3 million tons in January to June, higher than a government target of 7.1 million and the 6.7 million tons produced in the same period of 2007, the agriculture department said in a statement.

The preliminary production data covered only 92 percent of the 1.94 million hectares devoted to rice planting, the statement said.