The Philippine government said Tuesday there is no need to import additional rice this year even if the monsoon rains inundated farm areas and destroyed 200,000 tons of rice crop.

Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala said that there is sufficient supply of rice, citing that during the first half of the year, the palay harvest has reached 7.89 million metric tons.

The harvest during the first six months, he said was 4.2 percent higher than last year's 7.58 million tons.

"The good harvest is due to good weather and appropriate interventions by the DA through the provision of quality seeds and more irrigates areas," he said.

Alcala said the palay production for this year may hit 17.8 million tons, which would be 6.7 percent more than last year's.

The recent monsoon rains initially damaged 20,000 MT of palay, which according to Alcala was minimal and could be offset by the expected harvest from 180,000 hectares that participated under the early planting scheme of the department.