Eastern Visayas farm sector expected to grow 5% this year

published December 19, 2009 in BusinessWorld

TACLOBAN CITY -- The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) office here has projected that the region’s agriculture sector will grow by up to 5% this year.

This will be better than the muted 0.5%-1.5% agriculture growth projected nationwide for 2009. The Agriculture department last month revised downward its original 3% growth projection for the year, citing damage to 1.3 million metric tons of palay in Luzon wreaked by storms since end-September. Rice production accounts for 14% of total farm output.

Citing a report from the Bureau of Agriculture Statistics, NEDA regional director Buenaventura C. Go-Soco told journalists here that third-quarter data showed that the decline in production of certain crops in the region has been offset by an increase in fishery output.

"Economic difficulties experienced in crop production such as in copra production were largely overcome by these improvements in the fishery sector. With this performance, the agriculture and fishery sector can experience significant growth in 2009 better than initially expected, perhaps even up to a 5% growth," he added.

Mr. Go-Soco also said the agriculture sector is expected to have performed better in this last quarter, so that "2009 will not be a bad year for this sector after all."

"There is still a quarter left in 2009. We can predict higher production due to higher consumer demand," he said.

Mr. Go-Soco said that while commercial fishing actually declined 18.7%, aquaculture and municipal fishing increased by 12.3% and 12.4%, respectively. Overall, the fishery sector grew by 8.3%. He attributed the decline in the third quarter commercial fishing output to the long duration of southwest monsoon winds that hindered fishing activities.

From July to September 2009, fish production was estimated at P3 billion, with Eastern Samar as top producer and contributing P994 million, or almost one-third of the regional value.

Mr. Go-Soco said significant improvements were made in municipal fishing in Eastern Samar, Leyte, and Northern Samar.

Crops exhibited varying performance in the third quarter.

Late harvesting and tungro infestation affected palay production, which declined by 4.3% in the third quarter from the same period last year. Tungro is a virus causes severe stunting of plants and general reduction in production.

"Coconut production was virtually steady, with a decline of only 0.4%. This decline is attributed to what agriculturists termed as fruiting fatigue which follows a cyclical pattern," Mr. Go-Soco added.

Corn production was up 6.9% but abaca production declined by 4.9%, he reported.

Production of root crops was steady, with sweet potato declining by 1.2%, but taro production increased by 1.8% and cassava production increased by 1%.

"The reduction in (production of) many crops may lead to the conclusion that agriculture did not do well in the third quarter. However, since coconut production experienced only a slight reduction, then it is safe to say that while the economic situation in the agriculture sector suffered some declines, on the whole it remained stable," Mr. Go-Soco said. (Sarwell Q. Meniano)