Agriculture sector remains lowest GDP contributor

MANILA, Philippines — The agriculture sector saw its lowest contribution to the national economy last year over a five-year period.

Of the country’s three major economic sectors, the gross value added (GVA) of the agriculture, forestry and fishing (AFF) sector reached P1.78 trillion, accounting for 8.9 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2022, based on the latest Agriculture Indicators System of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). 

This is against the 61.4 percent share of the services sector and 29.7 percent share of the industry sector. 

The performance of the country’s agriculture sector can be monitored through the year-on-year growth of GVA, which refers to the difference between the gross output and intermediate consumption used in the production process.

Agriculture’s contribution to GDP was 9.7 percent in 2018, 9.2 percent in 2019, 10.2 percent in 2020 and 9.6 percent in 2021.

This is in contrast to the steady share of the industry sector at 29-30 percent while the services sector has seen an uptrend in its contribution in the last five years from 59.8 percent in 2018 to 61.4 percent last year.

PSA data showed agricultural crops posting a 1.1 percent decline in GVA last year, a turnaround from the 2.2 percent growth a year earlier. 

Among the crops, the GVAs of palay, sugarcane, banana, mango, coffee, rubber and tobacco contracted, reversing their positive performance in the previous year. 

On the other hand, corn, coconut, pineapple, cassava, cacao and abaca registered increases. 

The livestock and poultry and egg production recovered last year with growths of 2.3 percent and 6.7 percent, respectively.  

The GVA for other animal production also rose to 4.2 percent while AFF support activities also registered gains with 4.1 percent.

Fishing and aquaculture declined by 3.6 percent from a minimal growth of 0.2 percent a year earlier. 

The PSA data showed only the Cordillera Administrative Region and the Mimaropa region in Luzon saw contractions in GVA in AFF last year. 

All regions in Visayas posted declines in GVA of AFF while only the Caraga region reported a contraction in Mindanao. 

The PSA data also showed Luzon accounted for the largest GVA in AFF share among the three major islands, with a 44.6 percent contribution. 

At the regional level, Central Luzon continued to account for the biggest contribution at 13.7 percent.  

The least contributors to the total GVA in AFF were observed in the National Capital Region and Cordillera Administrative Region.