AFTER three straight quarters of contraction, the country’s agricultural sector managed to grow in the first quarter this year on the back of a rebound in the crops sector, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
PSA said in a report issued Wednesday that agriculture and fisheries output in the three months ending March reached P437.74 billion, up 1.9 percent from the previous year’s P429.62 billion.
While crop production’s growth was only at 1 percent in the period, its value, amounting to P249.61 billion, accounted for 57 percent of the agricultural performance. In the same period last year, its value of production was estimated at P247 billion.
Palay production, Filipinos’ major staple, just grew by 0.3 percent. Corn, meanwhile, dropped by 5.1 percent.
Federation of Free Farmers National Manager Raul Montemayor said the latest data was “a positive outcome,” but stressed more efforts were needed to regain previous levels.
“Palay continued to be sluggish; among crops, sugarcane was the bright spot,” he said in a message on Wednesday.
Poultry fastest growing
Poultry production logged the highest increase of 9.4 percent to P75.22 billion from P68.76 billion, with almost all commodities posting growth.
Fisheries also improved by 1.5 percent to P55.10 billion from P54.3 billion. Among the commodities that posted increases are tilapia, skipjack (gulyasan), roundscad (galunggong), yellowfin tuna (tambakol/bariles), frigate tuna (tulingan), and bigeye tuna.
Livestock production, on the other hand, saw a 2.8-percent decline during the period, reaching only P57.82 billion against last year’s P59.5 billion. Its major contributor, hog production, recorded a 3.7-percent decrease.
Danilo V. Fausto, president of the Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food, said the sector’s growth was “expected” given the absence of El Niño conditions that affected last year’s output.
However, Fausto said the industry was seeing a shift in consumption, especially in hog, amid African Swine Fever cases.
Start of recovery
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. was bullish that the industry could maintain the first-quarter results given the “favorable weather conditions and the intensified interventions of the Department of Agriculture (DA).”
“Hopefully, we could also begin later this year the commercial rollout of the long-awaited vaccine for African Swine Fever, which will help kickstart the DA’s large-scale hog repopulation effort,” Tiu Laurel said. (Lisbet K. Esmael © Philippine Daily Inquirer)
