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By Ira Karen Apanay, Senior
Reporter
The country’s agricultural
output grew by 4.7 percent in the first half of the year, with an
expansion led by corn and unhusked rice or palay, the government
reported Friday.
Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap
attributed the sustained growth of the farm sector to higher
government spending on agriculture aimed at attaining food
sufficiency, stabilizing commodity prices, and raising farmers’
incomes in the long term.
The Bureau of Agricultural
Statistics reported that the gross value of farm production rose
during the first semester by a hefty 23.23 percent to P576.960
billion from P468.192 billion recorded in the same period in 2007.
The bureau added that the
first-semester growth was higher than the 3.74-percent expansion in
the same period last year.
The crops sub-sector, which
contributed 48.42 percent to the total agricultural output, posted
the biggest expansion at 7.72 percent, with more than 23 percent in
gross earnings at current prices.
Palay output in the first
semester reached 7.12 million metric tons, representing an increase
of 5.84 percent compared to its performance a year ago.
Yap said the growth was
attributed to area expansion as a result of movement of harvests
from third quarter to second quarter in Ilocos Region and Cagayan
Valley, as well as to the use of late-maturing varieties that were
less susceptible to the relatively cooler climate that is normal in
January and February.
The report showed that other
crops—like corn, sugarcane, bananas and pineapples—also recorded
two-digit growth rates during the same period.
The livestock subsector, which
accounted for 11.67 percent of total agriculture output, posted a
decrease of 3.33 percent during the first six months. The gross
value of livestock production in the first half of 2008 totaled
P89.2 billion at current prices, according to the report.
Yap said the 3.33 livestock
decrease is attributed to the 4.33-percent decline in hog output
caused by various diseases that afflicted pigs beginning in December
2007.
Poultry, which contributed 13.22
percent to the output, produced 5.65 percent more during the first
half. Chicken output increased by 7.10 percent to 588.74 metric tons
during the semester from 549.7 metric tons last year, the report
said.
Fisheries, which make up 26.68
percent of total agriculture, posted a 2.74-percent growth, which
was slower than the previous year.
Agriculture officials said they
hope to achieve their production target of 10 million-plus tons
during the wet or main planting season to attain their full-year
forecast of 17.34 million metric tons of crops, higher than last
year’s record peak of 16.24 million metric tons.
But Yap said the Agriculture
department has been fine-tuning its intervention measures this
wet-cropping season to sustain the growth momentum in palay
production and to meet the 2008 yield target, despite production
setbacks like the declining use of fertilizer that is a consequence
of surging prices of that vital petrochemical input.
The department has been stepping
up the implementation of intervention measures to rapidly raise farm
yields and offset possible shortfalls. Field reports had indicated a
30-percent drop in farmers’ use of fertilizer because of higher
prices.
The cost of petrochemical
fertilizers has already doubled, ranging of P1,500 to P1,900 per
50-kilo bag.
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