Sustained gains in the livestock and poultry sectors are expected to help offset this year’s slump in agricultural production, according to the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA).
This comes as the Philippines faces ‘triple shocks’ this year, amid a surge in fuel and energy prices, higher fertilizer costs and the incoming El Niño.
SEARCA director Mercedita Sombilla said the government should continue its interventions to livestock and poultry sectors to sustain further growth.
‘If the interventions that we used for livestock and poultry will be sustained. They will be the ones that offsets the projected negative growth rates of agriculture once El Niño arrives,’ Sombilla, a former Agriculture undersecretary, told The STAR.
She added that additional interventions for the crop sector could offset some of the effects of the incoming dry season.
‘If we are able to roll out other interventions like crop substitutes, for example resistant crops in areas where rice is not yet available, they will be able to lessen the impact,’ she said.
She added that higher costs if interventions are not provided could discourage farmers from planting this year.
‘But I think the Department of Agriculture (DA) is making sure that their preparation is very early,’ Sombilla said, stressing that roll out should be strategic in certain areas.
‘El Niño will not hit the country the same way. There will be packets of good weather, there will be packets of severe drought and there will be packets of moderate droughts,’ she added.
The DA earlier said that the effects of elevated prices for fuel and fertilizers along with the incoming El Niño might affect the sector starting in the second half.
Philippine Statistics Authority data showed livestock production volumes in the first quarter rose by five percent to 537,690 metric tons and poultry increased by seven percent to 827,990 MT.
On the other hand, crop output dropped 4.6 percent to 25.7 million MT, while fisheries production fell 15.3 percent to 856,290 MT.