The country’s farm sector will end 2019 with a 2-percent hike in production despite the outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) and the drop in the farm-gate price of unhusked rice, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said on Tuesday.
The DA said it is maintaining its 2-percent growth target this year due to the “big factor” that the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) will play in boosting total agricultural output in the remaining months of the year.
Rice production, according to the DA, will continue to drive the full-year performance of agriculture as the crops subsector account for the lion’s share of total output at any given period.
The DA also said outbreaks of ASF, which resulted in the deaths and culling of over 50,000 pigs in some areas in Luzon, will not significantly affect hog production.
Farm output next year, according to the DA, will expand by 2 percent to 3 percent due to the implementation of all the initiatives funded by the RCEF.
“Everything has been considered even with the ASF. I am positive, my view is positive. Of course not all your targets can be met, there are a lot of unexpected things that were not considered, ASF for example,” Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar told reporters in a press briefing.
Dar is eyeing to double farmers’ income in five years and expand agriculture production by at least 3 percent annually in keeping with President Duterte’s directive of improving the lives of Filipinos.
Earlier, Dar said the President had ordered
him to boost the performance of the Philippine
agriculture, which expanded by an average of only 1.1 percent in the past
decade.
He said farm production growth should hit at least 3 percent to 4 percent to ensure ample food supply and meet the food requirements of the country’s population, which has been expanding at an annualized rate of 1.8 percent.
The sustained expansion of the livestock,
poultry and fisheries subsectors was not enough to offset the lackluster
performance of the crops subsector as farm production
contracted by 0.24 percent year-on-year in the first half.
Figures released by the Philippine Statistics Authority indicated that agricultural production in the second quarter fell by an annualized rate of 1.27 percent. Farm output in the same period last year inched up by 0.12 percent.
Rice fund
The DA said it has received the entire P10 billion for the first year of RCEF. The agency will receive the rice fund for six years as mandated by Republic Act 11203 or the rice trade liberalization law. The DA said 32 percent, or about P3.2 billion, of the fund has been obligated, while the remaining amount has been allotted already.
The agency also maintained that the rollout of initiatives funded by the RCEF was “never late.”
“This is the right time [to tap RCEF]. [This] time of the year, such intervention must start,” said Dar.
“We would like to believe that for the next six years, if properly implemented, RCEF will make rice farmers more productive, competitive and more prosperous,” he added.
It can be recalled that upon his appointment as agriculture chief for the second time, Dar said initiatives under the RCEF should have been implemented earlier than the third quarter of 2019.
Dar, who has been in office for two months, said the DA would do its best to put in place the necessary interventions to make rice farmers competitive in the first 100 days of his term.
The DA would also craft a catch-up plan that would detail the interventions that the government will roll out next year, he told reporters in a news briefing on August 6.
Under the RCEF, P5 billion will be allocated for the provision of farm machines to increase the rice sector’s mechanization level, while P3 billion would be spent for inbred rice seeds distribution and related training.
The RCEF also has an easy financing credit component with an annual funding of P1 billion and another P1 billion allocation for the improvement of farmers’ technical know-how.
Image credits: CESAR M. PERANTE