PH’s agriculture fails to boost GDP – OSHDP
Devotes more lands for agri than ASEAN neighbors
The Philippines has allocated more lands for agricultural development, even without a national land use act, compared to other ASEAN countries, but still the country’s agriculture contribution to the national gross domestic product is smaller compared to the rest in the region.
This was pointed out by the Organization of Socialized Housing Developers of the Philippines Inc. (OSHDP) in a position paper it submitted to the Economic Development Cluster to justify its opposition to the proposed National Land Use Act (NLUA), which shall effectively classify all lands as agricultural and stop all forms of conversion of agricultural lands once enacted into law.
OSHDP has noted of an apparent disconnect in the country’s effort to protect the agriculture sector and this sector’s contribution to the economy.
OSHDP cited data from the ASEAN Statistics which showed that the Phil- ippines has more than 12.578 million hectares of land devoted to agricultural development or 42.55 percent out of its 29.558 million total land area than other ASEAN countries. For instance, Thailand has allocated 20.400 million hectares or 39.76 percent of 51.312 million total land area while Malaysia has 7.916 million hectares for agriculture or 24 percent of total 32.984 million hectares. Vietnam has 9.409 million hectares devoted or 30.35 percent of its total land area of more than 31 million hectares.
“It appears that the Philippines is allocating more for agricultural development, even without a national land use act, compared to Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam. Despite this, our country’s agricultural contribution to the national Gross Domestic Product is smaller compared to these nations,” OSHDP pointed out.
Agriculture’s contribution to the country’s gross domestic product was last measured in 2013 at 11.23 percent, according to the World Bank.
The National Statistics Coordination Board also confirmed that the contribution of agriculture to the Philippine economy has fallen from a third to only a tenth as 2013 since 1946.
From a high of 29.7 percent of the Philippines' gross GDP in 1946 when the country gained independence, the share of agriculture has dropped to only 11.1 percent last year, the NSCB reported. In contrast, NSCB reported that the farm sector accounts for a bigger share of Vietnam's economy at 22.02 percent as of 2011, also down from 40.2 percent in 1985.
In relation to this, OSHDP pointed out the projected huge housing needs up to 2016 is 5,539,840 units and the estimated land requirements amount to about 43,726 hectares depending on the use of land resources, whether horizontal and vertical development. Regions 4A, National Capital Region, and 3 account for more than 30