The Department of Agriculture (DA) on Friday said that it will give renewed attention to the country’s livestock and poultry industries, saying that these subsectors in agriculture are the least expected to be affected by El Niño and other natural calamities this year.
Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala said that he is betting on livestock and poultry to counter the anticipated negative effects of the dry spell and typhoons that periodically devastate country’s agricultural lands.
“All components of the subsector recorded increases during the last quarter, when the other subsectors’ production dipped, that is why we will focus on this and other sectors that are not as prone to the effects of inclement weather,” Alcala said in a news statement.
Data obtained from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that the agriculture sector’s growth in 2015 slowed to 0.11 percent. On a quarterly basis, it contracted by 0.96 percent in the fourth quarter of the year. The minimal growth was attributed to the impacts of El Niño and Typhoon Lando (international code name Koppu).
Decreases in the production levels of the crops and fisheries subsectors were reported by the PSA, while the livestock and poultry industries posted positive growth.
The livestock and poultry subsectors in 2015 grew by 3.83 percent and 5.74 percent, respectively.
Production levels of all components in the livestock sector, except carabao breeding and duck raising, showed improvements in 2015.
Agriculture Undersecretary for Livestock Jose C. Reaño said the growth of the two subsectors can be attributed to the improvement in the productivity of breeders and growers.
Meanwhile, the output of the crops subsector was seen to have declined by 1.95 percent for the whole year of 2015. Palay and corn production, which suffered the most from the long dry spell and Lando, were lower than their 2014 levels.
Palay production was recorded at 18.15 million metric tons (MMT), 4.31 percent lower than the country’s output last year at 18.97 MMT, while corn output also slumped by 3.24 percent to 7.52 MMT, from 7.77 MMT in 2014.
The country’s fisheries production also fell by 1.96 percent during the January-to-December period. All fisheries products, except tiger prawn and seaweed, posted declines in production in 2015.