The production value of agriculture dropped 3.7 percent in the third quarter of the year pulled down by the crops, livestock and fisheries subsector, a report of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed.
“Undeniably, the combined effects of El Niño and La Niña weighed down palay production, a major contributor to the crop sector, which accounts for more than half of the value of agricultural and fisheries output,” said Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. in a statement yesterday.
“We’re implementing changes to the rice cropping calendar and building infrastructure like water impounding dams to mitigate the impact of climate change on the farming sector,” Laurel added.
Raul Montemayor, Federation of Free Farmers national manager, in a separate statement said while the decline can be attributed to weather disturbances and animal diseases, “it also reflects the low level of resiliency and vulnerability of the sector to external forces.”
“The output decline was due mainly to a reduction in the volume, which was not able to offset a general upswing in prices,” Montemayor said.
Jayson Cainglet, Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura executive director, said despite the growth of the poultry subsector, the farmgate price of chicken is below the cost of production at P90 per kilogram which is “not reflective to retail prices.” At constant 2018 prices, agricultural output was recoded at P397.43 billion in the third quarter, the PSA said.
The crops subsector declined by 5.1 percent year-on-year to P211.62 billion and accounted for 53.2 percent or more than half of the total value of production in agriculture and fisheries.
Weaker production was registered for palay, by 12.3 percent to 3.33 million metric tons (MT) from 3.8 million MT.
Sugarcane, mango, ampalaya, rubber, cassava, banana, pineapple and coconut also declined.
Corn went up by 1.3 percent to 2.5 million MT from 2.47 million MT.
Improvements were noted in onion, cabbage, potato, calamansi, tomato, sweet potato, tobacco, mongo, eggplant, cacao, coffee and abaca, among others.
The livestock subsector, which contributed 15.5 percent or P61.67 billion to the total value of agricultural production at constant 2018 prices, declined by 6.7 percent.
Hog production was down by 8 percent to 414.61 MT from 450.90 MT, while goat fell by 4.1 percent to 17.01 MT from 17.75 MT. Carabao production also weakened by 0.5 percent to 30.70 MT from 30.84 MT.
The drop in the livestock sector was cushioned by improvements in dairy and cattle, among others.
The value of production in the fisheries subsector also dropped by 5.5 percent to P55.48 billion, accounting for 14 percent of the total agricultural output.
Also down were grouper, matangbaka, fimbriated sardines, alumahan, yellowfin tuna, galunggong, tiger prawn, mud crab, sapsap, squid, frigate tuna, milkfish, tamban, talakitok, tilapia and seaweeds, among others.
Production improvements were observed for bigeye tuna, vannamei, skipjack, blue crab and bisugo.
Only the poultry subsector posted growth for the period, at 5.8 percent to P68.66 billion and accounted for 15.5 percent of total agricultural output.
Poultry was buoyed by the growth in the production of chicken and chicken eggs, despite lower results from duck eggs and duck.
