Manila, Philippines - The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said the agricultural sector must have a strong performance in the last quarter of the year to contribute to the overall economic growth of the country this year.
The agricultural sector reported a modest growth of 1.08 percent in the first quarter of the year, and only 0.73 percent in the second quarter.
In the second quarter of 2011, farm output grew by 6.9 percent, while the first quarter of the same year reported growth at 4.7 percent.
NEDA Deputy Director General Emmanuel F. Esguerra believes that the third quarter performance of the sector will be depressed because of natural catastrophes.
“The prevalent sentiment is that the third quarter is going to be down,” Esguerra said.
That means the agriculture sector must perform strongly in the fourth quarter to attain full year growth target of four to five percent.
“The fourth (quarter) must register a very healthy growth to be able to make up for that (damages due to natural catastrophes in third quarter),” Esguerra said.
Meanwhile, he said that the economic managers would be submitting to Pres. Aquino this week an assessment of the damages on the sector by the weather disturbances and the likely effects on the growth performance.
“We still need to assess the indirect negative effects resulting from the damage to infrastructure because certainly the damage (to infrastructure) will cost certain dislocations in terms of production, transportation, in other words, the loss output or the loss opportunities,” Esquerra pointed out.
The agriculture sector grew by 0.93 percent in the first six months of 2012, with a gross value of P691.4 billion at current prices. This was slower than a growth of 5.48 percent in the same period last year.
The agriculture sector accounts for 11 percent of the economy behind the 57-percent share of the services sector and the 32 percent of the industry sector.
The full-year growth target for the domestic economy is five to six percent.