Agri sector seen to grow 4% in 1st quarter

A considerable increase in rice and corn production will pull the first quarter growth of the agriculture sector to four percent in the first quarter, a big leap from the poor 0.55 percent growth posted during the same period in 2005.

Agriculture secretary Domingo F. Panganiban said the growth drivers for the first quarter aside from improved production of rice and corn, is the aquaculture sector, especially in the Visayas region.

"These are our projections. The final computations will be announced in the next two weeks by the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS)," said Panganiban.

The DA chief said that the La Niña weather phenomenon is beneficial to most crops and to take advantage of the rains, the National Irrigation Administration has been intensifying the rehabilitation of national and communal irrigation systems while constructing small water impounding systems.

La Niña is a weather phenomenon characterized by continuous rains during the dry summer months. .

Earlier, the BAS said the projected output of the major staples in the first quarter is expected to post an increment of seven percent for rice and 25 percent for corn compared to last year’s first quarter production.

As of Feb. 15 this year, harvests have been completed in about 330,000 hectares or 32 percent of the expected harvest area for the first quarter.

As farmers intend to cover an estimated 716,000 hectares or 86 percent in the first quarter, the DA expects harvest to further increase.

"This is about 1.1 million metric tons of production, a 2.3 percent higher compared to last year‚s production for the same period," said Panganiban

On the other hand, full-year palay production is projected to reach 15.1 milion metric tons (MT) from last year’s 14.6 million MT.

Earlier, DA projected a conservative incremental production of 300,000 MT or 14.9 million MT from last year’s 14.6 million MT.