Farm sector growth slows sharply to 1.26% in H1

The agriculture sector slowed down to a mere 1.26-percent growth in the first semester from 6.43 percent in the previous year, weakened considerably by the carryover effects of the El Niño phenomenon that started in October of 2004.

The agriculture sector also continued its lethargic performance in the second quarter with a growth rate of only 1.84 percent from 4.55 percent during the same period last year. In the first quarter this year, the agriculture sector posted its lowest first quarter growth in four years at 0.55 percent.

Despite the tepid growth, Bureau of Agricultural Statistics director Romeo Recide said the Department of Agriculture is confident it can still meet its full-year target of three to four percent.

"We have a lot of catching up to do in the second semester, especially in corn and palay production but we are maintaining our growth target for the year," said Recide.

Recide said the agriculture sector was hard hit by the El Niño, especially since the crops subsector led by rice and corn experienced significant production downturns. These two major staples contribute 15 percent and six percent, respectively, to the country’s total agricultural output.

Palay production was almost flat at 6.033 million metric tons (MT) compared to the high growth of 12.21 percent at 6.038 million MT last year.

Although palay yield from April to June went up 1.8 percent from the year-ago level, this increment was not enough to offset the losses incurred during the January to March period when production dropped in major rice-producing areas such as Cagayan Valley, Northern Mindanao, Davao and Socsargen. Insufficient rainfall was also experienced in Western Visayas, Central Visayas, Caraga and Zamboanga Peninsula.

Corn production skidded to 1.973 million MT, a 16 percent drop from last year’s 2.336 million MT. The harvest area shrank to 895,000 hectares from 1.02 million hectares or a 12.1 percent contraction in harvest area. The yield also went down to 2.2 metric tons per hectare, dropping 3.9 percent from last year’s levels. The high costs of fertilizer and other farm inputs also contributed to reduced yield performance.

The other crops that posted production declines were sugarcane, tobacco, garlic and onion. Improved performances were noted in crops such as coconut, banana, mango, coffee and abaca.

For the first semester, the primary growth driver was the fishery subsector which turned in a 5.12-percent growth. The aquaculture sector posted the biggest growth of 6.17 percent, followed by municipal fishery at 5.17 percent and commercial fishery at 3.03 percent.

The poultry subsector posted a 4.79-percent increase in production, with chicken production up by 4.21 percent, chicken egg production up 8.70 percent. Duck was up by 118 percent while duck egg production went down by 1.7 percent.

Production in the livestock sector was slow with a growth of only 1.01 percent. Hog production remained the main source of growth and posted an output of 1.85 percent.

Recide said production for the remainder of the year will have to increase considerably to still be able to meet the full-year growth target of three to four percent.

This could prove to be an uphill climb however with different weather disturbances in the past weeks already resulted in production losses of P953 million.

Two tropical typhoons, "Gorio" and "Huaning" affected the western section of the country.

In contrast, damages due to insufficient rainfall in Region I and II before the occurrence of the two typhoons were valued at P866.4 million. This was largely attributed to the damages in corn areas of Region II, where 73 percent of standing crops were affected.