Farm sector seen to grow 2%-2.5%

Substantial crop losses due to poor weather conditions dragged the agriculture sector down to a sluggish two- to 2.5-percent growth in 2005, way off the four-percent original target and the revised growth projection of 3.5 percent for the year.

To recover from last year’s lackluster performance, Agriculture Secretary Domingo F. Panganiban said the Department of Agriculture (DA) has asked the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to release P3.3 billion in the first quarter to enable the National Irrigation Administration (NIA ) which is attached to the DA to implement its long-overdue rehabilitation of national and communal irrigation systems in time for the May rice and corn planting season.

"We are hoping to reverse the projected two to 2.5 percent slow growth in 2005 and double the sector’s output for 2006 to four percent," said Panganiban.

The weak performance of the agriculture sector, especially from January to September was due to long dry spells in major rice and corn producing areas, along with subsequent flooding of these areas during the rainy season. These two major staples contribute 15 percent and six percent, respectively, to the country’s total agricultural output.

In the third quarter of 2005, palay harvest area contracted by 4.7 percent while yield dropped by 2.3 percent bringing down the July-September crop by 7.1 percent. The dry spell in Cagayan Valley, followed by typhoons caused heavy damages in the region. Mimaropa and Bicol, particularly, Camarines Sur, also suffered typhoon and flashflood damages. Western Visayas, together with Bicol provinces, recorded contractions in hectarage as plantings were delayed due to late onset of rains. The reported incidence of neckrot, blight, leafblast, stemborer and tungro in some farms in Western Visayas and Davao region also contributed to overall slump in productivity.

Corn production was down 2.31 percent to 4.175 million MT from 4.274 million MT during the same period in 2004. This was attributed to the reduction in area and yield due to dry spell in Cagayan Valley, Northern Mindanao, ARMM and Socsargen. Yield dropped 2.21 metric tons per hectare from 2.30 metric tons per hectare a year ago as farmers scrimped on production inputs such as costly fertilizers.

Agriculture assistant secretary for policy and planning and concurrent director of the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics Romeo Recide noted that in Cagayan Valley in Northern Luzon, a major corn producing province, about 300,000 hectares of corn lands were lost due to poor weather throughout the year. He added that the same hectarage for rice was damaged.

"As a result, despite what we project to be a strong performance in the fourth quarter, this would not be enough to pull off even a three percent growth," said Recide.

The DA’s current measures, according to Panganiban, are now geared toward doubling the sector’s production output for this year.

To do this however, Panganiban said it is crucial for the DBM to release P3.3 billion to the DA in the first quarter. This will be used to finance the rehabilitation of existing national and communal rice irrigation systems.

The amount being asked by the department is substantially higher than the P1.3 billion it should get for the first quarter under the re-enacted budget for 2006. The money will go into reviving irrigation systems covering 360,000 hectares.

Currently only about 840,000 hectares out of the existing 1.2 million hectares of irrigated systems are functioning.

"If we are to increase rice and corn production, we need to rehabilitate the non-functioning irrigation systems and time this with the major planting season for these crops which is in the first quarter," said Panganiban.

Often, the late disbursement of funds by the DBM has restricted the DA’s ability to release funds on time for the procurement and distribution of critical production inputs such as hybrid rice seeds and fertilizers.

"Planting simply cannot wait for the funds, we have to put more sense in the national government’s schedule of disbursements of agricultural funds," stressed Panganiban, adding that the rehabilitation of the irrigation systems have to be fasttracked because several of these major irrigation systems are heavily silted.