Sugar-rich Negros Occidental (NegOcc) province in Western Visayas in the Philippines is going palay (unhusked rice) with the 20-peso ($0.35)-per-kg program.
After a May 12, 2025 election-time halt, the Department of Agriculture (DA) on June 24 brought the distribution program to Pulupandan town.
The Federation of Irrigators’ Association of Central Negros-Bago River Irrigation System (FIACN-BRIS) initially sold 50 bags via the local government.
Distributors cite around 500 households each bought 5 kg of the grain at the discounted rate.
Hitherto, FIACN-BRIS had been retailing rice in the township affordably at 25 peso (0.44) a kg, via the “Bigasan ng Bayan” initiative.
Negros is among provinces in the south-central Philippines’ Visayas archipelago that have so far accessed the 20-peso program.
At its start on May 2, 2025, the program had elicited Vice President Sara Duterte to term it as biased towards Visayas.
Procurement Contract
Meanwhile on June 10, the irrigator group FIACN-BRIS won the contract to provide affordable rice for local distribution.
Although Pulupandan town would have begun the NegOCC sales campaign by mid-June, priority first went to the metropolitan Bacolod City.
Pulupandan’s turn came on the 24th, upon which the irrigator-contractor sold the monthly maximum of 50 sacks per township.
Producer organizations such as FIACN-BRIS manage to sell their rice cheaply because they procure input support from the Negros government. And as the statistics below reveal, such procurement is essential in a province where self-sufficiency remains the main goal.
Negros-Occidental Rice Statistics
The relatively new province of Negros-Occidental (NegOcc) produces 21% of all palay rice in the Western Visayas region in the Philippines. According to the Western Visayas’ Department of Agriculture (DA), NegOcc is the second biggest rice producer in the region. Sufficiency in production remains the main focus of all provinces of the island.
Regionally, Western Visayas is the 3rd largest source of rice in the PH, as of 2023. It accounted for 11.28% of national palay production in 2023, albeit with a yearly negative output of -2.52%.
Is rice yield rate in NegOcc increasing?
Gaining yield rates rice in NegOcc are helping arrest regional production retraction in the larger Western Visayas. In August 2023, the provincial government cited that the annual yield rate had increased to 3.84 tonnes a hectare (ha). This impressive productivity helped local farmers harvest 121,378 ha out of the 130,960 ha they had planted in the 2023 season. The gain brought the total output to 465,665 tonnes while domestic self-sufficiency reached 84%.
Which area of Negros Occidental produces most palay?
Bago City ranked the number one palay producer in NegOcc in 2024, at 123,231 tonnes or 1/3rd the total output in the province. The yield rate, at 4.27 tonnes/ha, was also higher than the provinicial median.
Is rice production sufficient in the Western Visayas?
According to the government of Western Visayas, the region is self-sufficient in rice production. However, the sufficiency rate fell from 120% (2022) to 118% (2023).