Agriculture sector shows mixed results in first quarter

MANILA, Philippines – As admitted by Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap, agricultural output for the first quarter is showing mixed results with preliminary data gathered by The STAR indicating that while the fisheries sector managed to post a growth of four percent from January to March this year, corn production has posted a negative 2.56 percent growth.

The Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) reported over the weekend that  the fisheries sub-sector tops all other sub-sectors of agriculture with an average growth of more than four percent in the first quarter of this year.

On the other hand, BAS figures show that corn output from January to March this year decreased by 2.56 percent with production amounting to only 1.942 million metric tons (MMTs) compared to last year’s production of 1.993 MMT in 2008.

The BAS is expected to release this week the first quarter growth figures.

Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) director Malcolm Sarmiento further revealed that the municipal fisheries sector continues to recover, registering a four percent growth in the first quarter of this year.

Sarmiento is thus urging fisherfolk to venture into aquaculture or fish farming to give the seas the needed respite from overexploitation and prepare them for the challenges of global warming and climate change.

Scientists, Sarmineto said, believe that the fisheries sector is highly vulnerable to the climate change phenomenon.

“Fish capture is highly extractive and unsustainable, aside from being a very risky occupation. At the turn of the decade, we shifted our production paradigm from capture fisheries to aquaculture or fish farming,” Sarmiento said.

Such shift, Sarmiento said, has allowed aquaculture to register the highest growth rate contributing almost 50 percent of the total production last year.

The decline in corn production in the first quarter, on the other hand, is being attributed to changes in weather and partly to the tail end effect of  last year’s rise in fertilizer prices.

However, the Department of Agriculture remains optimistic that corn production in the second quarter will be a positive 2.75 percent with production reaching 1.264 million MT compared to the 2008 second quarter production of 1.3 million MT.

For the first half of this year, the DA has projected a total corn production of 3.206 million MT.

Unfortunately, though, corn production for the first half of this year, based on DA projections, would still post a decline of 2.63 percent compared to the first half of 2008 which had posted a production of 3.293 million metric tons.

This year’s corn sector production growth for the first semester is expected to compare badly to 2008’s comparable first half performance which had posted a substantially strong growth spurt of 19.6 percent compared to 2007.

For twhole of 2009, the DA is projecting corn production at 7.416 million MT for an annual growth of just over seven percent. –Marianne V. Go, Philippine Star