DA sees lower 1.5% growth for agriculture

MANILA, Philippines — Agriculture Secretary William Dar remains optimistic about the farm sector this year despite the consecutive typhoons that battered the country.

In an interview with One News’ “Agenda,” Dar scaled down the DA’s projected growth target for the agriculture sector to 1.5 percent this year from the original two percent.

“It’s still positive, but probably not the two percent that we wanted. That’s always the aspiration – to be much better than the population growth rate of 1.5 percent,” Dar said.

“But the best case would be to reach 1.5 percent,” he said.

The farm sector is touted as the saving grace of the Philippine economy amid the pandemic.

The sector managed to grow 0.7 percent last quarter and 0.5 percent in the second quarter at a time when most industries and economic sectors were reeling from the lockdowns and reduced activities.

“It is a big challenge [to grow] with the typhoons that came. The livestock industry is still reeling from the ASF (African swine fever) and the poultry sector is just starting to recover,” Dar said.

The livestock and poultry sectors declined in the last two quarters.

The recent typhoons – Quinta, Rolly and Ulysses – also damaged nearly P12 billion in produce.

“I’m still hoping that in spite of the losses, we can still recover considering that the fourth quarter has the biggest contribution to the sector,” Dar said.

The DA has been focusing its resources on accelerating growth in key sub-sectors to hit the full-year growth target.

Its P24-billion stimulus package allocation under the Bayanihan 2 is also enabling the agency to continue and intensify its productivity and income-enhancement projects, not just for rice and corn, but also for other commodity programs.

Dar is riding on the crest of emerging consensus that an agriculture-driven economy is the best strategy to enable the country to rise stronger from the pandemic.