Agriculture sector falls short of all projections

2018 growth only 1%

The country's agriculture sector has failed to meet all expectations for the year, even the much lower growth projection Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol has made just a few weeks ago.

A review of the sector's performance recently done by the Department of Agriculture's (DA) Management Council (MANCOM) showed Philippine agriculture and fisheries only went up by 1 percent last year.

This was not only lower compared to the nearly 4 percent growth the sector has achieved in 2017. A 1 percent growth is also not anywhere near the DA's target for 2018, which has been revised a couple of times.

First, the agency was expecting the sector to grow by at least the same level as it did two years ago. By December, it became much more realistic with a growth forecast of 2.5 percent.

"2018 was a tough year," Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said on Thursday following the annual review of the agency's MANCOM.

It was the typhoons, he said, that significantly brought down the sector's performance. In 2018, a super typhoon and 12 more tropical storms hit the country almost every month, wiping out 1.8 million metric tons (MT) of crops with an estimated value of 136 billion.

Sector-wise, DA missed most of its target production level for the year, except for poultry, which posted higherthan-expected numbers.

The country, for instance, was expected to produce a total of 19.4 million metric tons (MT) of rice by the end of 2018, which would have been the country's highest palay output, but it looks like year-end output only totaled to 19.1 million MT.

The corn sector, also a main staple, 110 lost about

The official data measuring the growth of the agriculture sector would come from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), which is due for release more than a week from now.

In the meantime, MANCOM — which is composed of all top officials of the DA and heads of its bureaus and attached agencies including the National Food Authority (NFA) and the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) — agreed to adopt measures to mitigate the effects of tropical disturbances and climate change to the agriculture sector. billion worth of production.