Agriculture sector shrinks 2.84% in first quarter

MANILA, Philippines – The agriculture sector shrank by 2.84 percent in the first quarter as a result of the prolonged drought.

The crops sub-sector, which contributes 47.75 percent of total agricultural production, contracted by 6.15 percent as palay or paddy rice production losses dropped 11.41 percent to 3.49 million metric tons while corn output reached only 1.6 million MT, down by 16.76 percent compared to the same period last year.

“The dry spell caused by the El Niño pulled down area harvested and yield in the major palay producing regions of Cagayan Valley, Western Visayas, Northern Mindanao and SOCCSKSARGEN,” the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) said in a report.

The BAS said “yellow corn production was adversely affected by hot weather as area harvested in Cagayan Valley , SOCCSKSARGEN, Western Visayas, Northern Mindanao and Cordillera Administrative Region contracted in the first quarter of the year.”

Registering growth in the crops sub-sector were onion with an output increase of 11.22 percent; coconut which grew by 1.75 percent; banana by 1.26 percent; mango, 3.10 percent; tobacco, 9.66 percent; cassava, 6.99 percent; tomato, 7,05 percent; eggplant, 1.21 percent; and cabbage, 3.55 percent.

The livestock and poultry sub-sectors managed to post modest gains in the first quarter of the year despite the onslaught of El Niño on key food-producing areas in the country.

The livestock sub-sector grew by a modest 0.51 percent in the first three months of 2010, as production increases were recorded for hog, goat and cattle, while dairy posted a hefty 17.22 percent output gain.

The poultry sub-sector expanded 2.02 percent on the back of increases in chicken and chicken egg production of 1.81 percent and 4.43 percent, respectively.

The livestock and poultry  sub-sectors account for close to 30 percent of the total agricultural output for the first quarter.

Total fisheries production, which accounts for 24.84 percent of the total agricultural output, dipped by 0.63 percent in the first three months of the year.

Commercial and municipal fisheries posted production declines of 3.5 percent and 0.15 percent, respectively, but aquaculture managed to grow by 0.36 percent. –Marianne V. Go (The Philippine Star)