Eastern Visayas agri industry plunging since 2009 — NEDA

CEBU, Philippines - The agriculture sector in Eastern Visayas has been declining in the last six years due to weather disturbances and other factors, said a local official of the National Economic and Development Authority.

NEDA Assistant Regional Director Alan L. Olavides said the continuous slump of the region's agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing (AHFF) sector could be blamed to weather disturbances such as rain, flooding and typhoons.

Other factors blamed include the high prices of farm inputs, low agriculture demand from the world market and the presence of pests and diseases, he noted.

During a recent investment forum of the Board of Investments in Cebu City, Olavides reported the region's AHFF sector had started to plunge in 2009 up to 2014.

"It grew steadily from 2006 to 2008 but it continuously decelerated from 2009 to 2014. This downtrend of the performance of the AHFF sector is affected by several factors," he said.

In 2014, the sector contracted by 12.8 percent, against a positive target of 5.37 percent. It also contracted by 6.6 percent in 2013, the year when super typhoon Yolanda (International name: Haiyan) paralyzed economic activity in the region, killed thousands and caused wide damage to properties.

Among the three main economic sectors, only services was able to recover last year, growing at 3.6 percent from the 1.7 percent growth it posted in 2013.

Industry in Region 8 also contracted by 2.8 percent last year, far below the 13.9 percent growth it had in 2013.

Last year, its gross regional domestic product (GRDP) contracted by 2.3 percent after growing by 4.5 percent in 2013. GRDP measures the value of goods and services produced by a region. GRDP of all regions comprises the gross domestic product (GDP) of a country.

Region 8 is composed of the provinces of Leyte, Southern Leyte, Samar, Northern Samar, Eastern Samar and Biliran.

Olavides also said Eastern Visayas has created regional development roadmaps for its agribusiness commodities (palay, coconut, banana, sugar, abaca, bangus, mussel and seaweed), tourism and information and communications technology (ICT) industries.