Agricultural, fisheries output further contract in Q3

MANILA, Philippines —  The country could miss its target growth rate for the agriculture and fisheries output this year after a prolonged dry spell and devastating typhoons dragged down local production in the third quarter to its steepest decline in 15 months.

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said the value of farm and fisheries output (at constant 2018 prices) from July to September declined by 3.7 percent to P397.43 billion due to lower production of crops, livestock and fisheries.

It was the second straight quarter that agriculture and fisheries output declined. The recorded drop in value was also steeper than the 0.2-percent dip in the third quarter last year, according to the PSA.

The value of crop production, which accounts for half of the overall agriculture output, declined on an annual basis by 5.1 percent. The crops sector has contracted for three straight quarters already.

Livestock output fell by 6.7 percent year-on-year while fisheries production contracted by 5.5 percent.

Only the poultry sector posted an increment in the third quarter, growing by 5. 8 percent, according to the PSA. The poultry sector has grown for 14 straight quarters to date, the PSA added.

“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,” Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said yesterday.

The value of the country’s agriculture and fisheries output from January to September dipped by two percent on an annual basis following the third quarter performance. With this, the DA is lukewarm of meeting its full-year growth target for agriculture and fisheries of one percent to two percent.

“It would be difficult [to hit the target] especially with the performance this fourth quarter where we faced a lot of natural calamities which could pull down or weigh down the overall performance of agriculture. The impact of El Niño and La Niña has been huge already,” DA spokesman Arnel de Mesa said yesterday.

Tiu Laurel said the DA is undertaking changes to the rice cropping calendar and building infrastructure such as water impounding dams to mitigate the impact of climate change on the industry.

Palay production, which accounted for 35 percent of the total crop output, fell by 12.3 percent on an annual basis, according to the PSA.

The agriculture chief also emphasized that the DA and the Food and Drug Administration are developing an effective vaccine against African swine fever, which has been devastating the country’s hog industry since 2019.

The value of the livestock sector fell by 6.7 percent in the third quarter, contracting for the third straight quarter, after hogs output declined by eight percent.