DA sees 3%-5% growth in farm production this year

The Department of Agriculture's target of 3 percent to 5 percent growth for farm production this year is “achievable,” driven by the palay, corn and fisheries subsectors, Secretary Proceso J. Alcala said over the weekend. “We have been experiencing good weather conditions. The fisheries sector has also registered positive growth [in the first quarter of the year]; we hope it will not return to negative for the first half,” he said. The farm sector, which grew 2.92 percent on the whole last year, grew by 3.3 percent in the first quarter of the year, an improvement over the 1.31-percent growth rate of the same period in 2012. At current prices, the sector grossed P352 billion in Q1, up 3.33 percent year-on-year. Farmgate prices rose 0.03 percent, slight growth but still an improvement over the 4.33-percent fall in prices in the same period in 2012. The crops subsector, accounting for 54.1 percent of the total agricultural production during the period, rose by 3.6 percent compared to its 0.83-percent growth in the same period last year. The palay and corn subsectors grew by 4.5 percent and 11.43 percent respectively. The harvest of unmilled rice was placed at 4.17 million metric tons (MT) worth P66 billion. The fisheries subsector, which comprises 16.3 percent of total agricultural production for the quarter, saw a growth of 5.6 percent to P59.9 billion. In the same quarter last year, the subsector shrank 3.5 percent. The livestock subsector, which comprises 15.3 percent of the total agricultural output for the quarter, grew only 0.3 percent (compared to its 3.13-percent growth in Q1 2012.) to gross P54.34 billion. The poultry subsector, accounting for 14.4 percent of total agricultural production, grew 2.8 percent to P45.8 billion compared to 7.10-percent growth in the same period last year. — BM, GMA News