El Niño pulls down H1 agri production

THE PROLONGED dry spell due to the El Niño weather phenomenon reduced the value of the country’s agricultural output in the first half by 3.5 percent to P390.4 billion, with the decline from both the crops and fisheries subsectors pulling down total production.

This was a reversal from the same period last year when output grew marginally by 0.89 percent, according to the latest report by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

The PSA report also showed that the value of agriculture production in the second quarter alone declined by 2.3 percent yearon-year to P197.5 billion.

Growth in the livestock and poultry production failed to make up for the losses in crops and fisheries in the first semester.

The value of crop production slipped by 6.8 percent to P196 billion, while the fisheries subsector recorded a 5.92-percent decline to P64.7 billion.

Crop output accounts for almost half of total production at 48 percent.

Palay yielded the biggest production value at P66.2 billion, trailed by corn output at P20.5 billion.

Palay harvests reached 7.65 million metric tons from January to June 2016, declining from 8.32 MT in the same period last year. Corn output likewise dropped to 2.83 MT from 3.38 MTin 2015, also due to the dry spell.

The report said the drought experienced in the Visayas, Caraga, Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and Soccsksargen contributed to the decrease in production.

Coconut production also dropped by 6.24 percent, as the sector has not yet fully recovered from the effects of Typhoon “Nona” that struck Eastern Visayas late last year.

The fisheries subsector, which accounted for 18.31 percent of the country’s total output, reported lower production across fish species for the second quarter.

The value of milkfish production, which accounts for about 3 percent of the subsector’s output, declined by 0.14 percent to P 10.2 billion in the first half.

Hot weather conditions, high water temperatures and extreme low tides contributed to the decrease in the fish production.

Both livestock and poultry subsectors, on the other hand, recorded output growth at 5.6 percent to P68 billion and 1.12 percent to P61.7 billion, respectively.

Farmgate prices, meanwhile, rose by an average of 3.45 percent year-on-year, up from last year’s decline by 4.11 percent.