SANTO DOMINGO. - The Agriculture Ministry Tuesday said national rice production has jumped 20.5 percent in the first five months, attributing it to direct Government support.

It said from January to May production reached 4.15 million quintals, or 708,657 more that the same year ago period, of 3.4 million quintals.

It said thanks to the Government’s support and growers’ confidence Dominican Republic is self-sufficient in rice for the fourth consecutive year. Last year’s record harvest of 11.1 million quintals placed Dominican Republic among the nations with sustained self-sufficiency in rice.

An estimated crop of more than 6 million quintals is expected in the first stage of the spring harvest (April/August), rice’s most important cycle. In the first stage of the recently concluded spring planting (December to May), growers seeded two million more hectares than in 2008, Agriculture said.