Farm sector marks turnaround

The country’s farm production rebounded in the third quarter of this year after contracting in the previous two quarters as nearly all subsectors delivered the much-needed boost.

Agricultural output grew by 1.8 percent against a decline of 2.6 percent in the same period a year ago, the Philippine Statistics Authority said in a report.

Crops, livestock and poultry subsectors expanded while fisheries declined during the period.The value of agriculture and fishery production at current prices reached P501.58 billion, representing an increase of 12.3 percent.

“The year-on-year growth may have been attributed to the lower base denominator effects a year ago in view of some pockets of lockdowns last year, while there are no more lockdowns so far this year,” said Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. chief economist Michael Ricafort.

“However, this is offset by the year-on-year decline in fisheries as this is also consistent with some importation in recent months in an effort to increase local supply and lower the prices of some commercial fish species,” added Ricafort.

Raul Montemayor, national manager of Federation of Free Farmers, said it would be better to compare year-on-year rather than quarter-on-quarter data on the back of possible shifts in production schedules due to weather and other factors.

Montemayor said there was a year-on-year drop in crops and fisheries output, while poultry and livestock were just rebounding from contraction in the past year.Growth drivers

“We were expecting a worse output mainly due to the effect of fertilizer and fuel prices. This might be reflected more fully in the fourth quarter,” he added.

Poultry posted the biggest increase at 6.4 percent, equivalent to 15.2 percent of the total value of agricultural production.  Except for duck, all poultry commodities saw their outputs expand. Duck eggs climbed by 13.9 percent while chicken and chicken eggs rose by 6.7 percent and 6.1 percent, respectively.

“They should get the life cycle model,” said Jayson Cainglet, Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura executive director.

He said because the cycle of poultry raising only ran from 33 to 35 days, this subsector was always in a boom and bust situation.

Cainglet also said the production cost and farm-gate prices of poultry and hog were still sluggish. Farm-gate price refers to the selling price between farmers and traders.

Farm-gate price of poultry ranges from P103 to P106 per kilogram (kg) while for hogs, it ranges from P160 to P180 per kg.

Livestock, with a share of 15.6 percent, gained 4 percent. Following a decrease in the January to March period, production picked up in the next two quarters.

Improvements were recorded in dairy (15.8 percent), hog (4.5 percent), carabao (3.5 percent) and cattle (1.2 percent), while goat output was slightly down.

Crops, accounting for more than half of the total at 53.9 percent, rose by 1.8 percent after declining in the first two quarters.Sugarcane and abaca rose 78.8 percent and 21.7 percent, respectively. Staple foods, palay and corn, went up by 1 percent and 2.5 percent.

Uptick was seen in cacao (8.2 percent), tomato (6.1 percent), ampalaya (2.7 percent), eggplant (2.3 percent), sweet potato (2.2 percent), tobacco (1.9 percent), onion (1.7 percent), pineapple (1.5 percent), cabbage (1.2 percent) and coconut (1 percent) while mongo, cassava and banana went up by less than a percent.

Reductions were recorded in calamansi (6.2 percent), coffee (4 percent), mango (3.8 percent), potato (1 percent) and rubber (0.3 percent).

Fisheries slumped by 4.2 percent. It has been on a downtrend in the last nine months. INQ