El Niño impact lingers on; agri H1 profit drops 2.59%

CEBU, Philippines - The El Niño phenomenon continued on in the first half of the year, taking its toll on the country’s agriculture sector.

According to the performance report for the first six months of the year of the Department of Agriculture (DA), the performance of the country’s agriculture sector declined by 2.59 percent with the crop sub-sector mostly affected, dipping by 6.72 percent.

Despite the sector’s slowdown, farmers and fishers still received higher prices for their various products during the first six months of the year, with farm gate prices registering an average increase of 4.45% versus last year’s level.

In total value, agricultural production at current prices slightly increased by 1.75 percent to P607.8 billion from last year.

Among the four sub-sectors of agriculture, crops contribute 45 percent to the country’s total agricultural production.

Production of unmilled rice or palay also decreased by 10.24 percent to 6.62 million metric tons (MT) for the period from 7.37 million MT in the same period last year while corn harvest dipped by 24.95 percent to 2.42 million MT from 3.22 million MT in 2009. Sugarcane yield was also down by 21.86%.

Likewise, the fisheries subsector, which comprises 28% of total agricultural production, barely grew, and contracted by 11 percent.

Only the livestock and poultry subsectors, which contribute 27 percent to the country’s total agriculture production, posted positive growth, at 2.11 percent and 2.46 percent, respectively.

In terms of value, the respective contribution of each subsector was P312.7 billion for crops, P112.3 billion of fisheries, P104.9 billion for livestock and P77.9 billion for poultry.