Agri reels from El Niño; Q1 farm output flat

The value of local agriculture and fisheries output in the first quarter remained relatively flat as subsectors reeled from the El Niño phenomenon, with poultry being the lone subsector posting higher production.

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said the value of agriculture and fisheries production at constant 2018 prices reached P428.99 billion, about P200 million higher than the P428.79 billion in the same quarter in 2023.

PSA said the value of production of crops, livestock and fisheries subsectors all contracted, but the poultry subsector registered an increase.

The crops subsector, which accounted for more than half of the total output, posted a slight dip in the value of its production year-on-year.

Crops production was valued at P247.04 billion versus last year’s P247.76 billion.

Meanwhile, the value of livestock production settled at P59.46 billion, 3.6 percent lower than the P61.66 billion in 2023. Fisheries output slipped by 1.3 percent to P53.73 billion from P54.42 billion.

Production in the poultry subsector rose by six percent to P68.761 billion from P64.94 billion.

Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said the entire farm sector averted a contraction because of the interventions made by the government to help farmers and fisherfolk cope with the challenges brought by El Niño.

“Interventions and assistance provided by the government allowed the agriculture sector to fare better this time compared to periods in the past when we had El Niño,” Tiu Laurel said.

“The impact of reduced rainfall and hotter temperatures was evident in lower crops and fisheries production in the first quarter,” Tiu Laurel added.

Tiu Laurel said he is “cautiously” optimistic that the agriculture and fisheries sector would perform better in the second quarter as a result of the various interventions that the government made against El Niño.

Agriculture Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa said the overall performance of the agriculture and fisheries sector would have contracted if the government had not rolled out its mitigating measures against El Niño.

De Mesa said the Department of Agriculture (DA) remains keen on achieving an agriculture and fisheries output growth of about one percent and two percent this year. The agriculture and fisheries sector grew by 0.4 percent in 2023.

“We are still positive that despite all the challenges that we are facing, from El Niño to transboundary animal diseases, (the sector was able to grow) even (at) a very small positive (rate),” De Mesa told reporters.

Philippine Chamber of

Agriculture and Food Inc. president Danilo Fausto shared the same optimism that the farm sector would still be able to post a full-year growth as a result of the programs slated by the various subsectors.

Fausto added that agriculture output for this year would grow by about one percent.

“That is why we are requesting already the operationalization of the private-public agricultural budget monitoring committee to monitor the projects of the DA,” Fausto said.

Fausto attributed the expansion in poultry output to higher demand by Filipinos for cheaper animal protein, as pork remains expensive due to supply woes caused by African swine fever.

As for fisheries, Fausto said the subsector’s output contracted possibly because aquaculture operators reduced the volume of fingerlings they loaded to avoid fish kill due to lower oxygen levels in fish pens and ponds decreased caused by dryer and hotter weather.