• The country’s palay or unmilled rice production contracted by two percent in the first quarter as farms were unable to withstand the effects of warmer and drier climatic conditions due to El Niño.
• Local palay output from January to March declined by two percent to 4.68 million metric tons from the 4.78 million MT recorded volume in the same period last year, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
• The actual palay output in the first three months was 2.8 percent lower than the 4.82 million MT earlier projected by the PSA.
• Experts blamed El Niño as the primary reason behind the decline in palay output during the reference period.

https://www.philstar.com/business/2024/05/02/2351862/el-nio-trims-palay-harvest-q1