The national government will expand its data gathering and monitoring on the country’s livestock and poultry supply, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
On Wednesday, National Statistician Claire Dennis S. Mapa told the BusinessMirror that the undertaking would require an additional budget of around P60 million.
Mapa said PSA and the Department of Agriculture (DA) are now in talks, with the latter keen on funding the data collection efforts.
“We are planning to expand our livestock and poultry surveys to monthly data collection from the current quarterly schedule to provide policy-makers with higher frequency data,” Mapa said.
The DA earlier said they are working with the private sector and the PSA to harmonize and improve data on hogs, particularly the number of pigs lost due to African swine fever (ASF) and related actions.
Former National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) Executive Director Reildrin G. Morales disclosed that the private sector and government officials have agreed to improve data on pigs.
Morales said certain private sector groups estimate that the country has already lost 36 percent of its 12.7 million pig herd, which is about 4.5 million hogs, due to ASF and ASF-related actions, such as culling and reduction of stocks. However, he noted that PSA data showed the country lost around 10 percent of the country’s total pig population.
He said data harmonization will be able to efficiently advance the government’s response in controlling the spread of ASF, which has resulted in the culling of at least 400,000 pigs based on government data.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) earlier projected that the country’s pork output this year may fall by 3.6 percent to 1.075 million metric tons (MMT), its lowest volume in 20 years, as ASF continues to disrupt domestic hog production.
The USDA revised downward its production forecast for the Philippines from its earlier projection of 1.35 MMT in October, dismissing an immediate rebound of domestic hog output this year.
With Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas
Image credits: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg