December 6, 2006

Philippine agriculture growth to slow down in Q4

THE quarter-on-quarter growth of the Philippine farm sector may decelerate between 2 to 2.5 percent from 4.27 percent registered in the third quarter of the year due to the damage caused by destructive typhoons that hit the country lately, reports the Business Mirror daily.
           
University of Asia and the Pacific's (UA&P) agriculture expert Dr Rolando Dy admits said the farm industry would be fortunate if a two percent growth can be achieved as there had been significant devastation brought by supertyphoons Reming and Milenyo.

Largely affected were the grains, swine and coconut sectors, he said. 

Prior to the arrival of the destructive storms, Dy said his projection was that the farm sector would grow by at least 3 percent.
           

University of the Philippines economist Benjamin Diokno said the slow growth is also attributed to the ongoing mild El Niño, adding that the farm sector would just 2.5 percent growth at its highest.

Both economists, however, said that despite the low forecast for the fourth quarter, the farm sector could still manage to grow by 4 percent, the target earlier set by the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS)¡ªan attached agency of the Department of Agriculture (DA).
           

Diokno said the projected 5.5 percent in gross domestic product growth would also be missed due to power outages in areas ravaged by the typhoons.

           
Reming has been the most destructive typhoon causing some 830 million pesos worth of damage in the farm sector alone, particularly devastating the Bicol region.
           
           
Damage caused by supertyphoon Milenyo, which ravaged the National Capital Region and Southern Tagalog, reached more than half a billion pesos.
           
The country's farm sector posted a 4.87-percent growth in January to September of this year on the back of higher production posted by all subsectors especially fisheries and crops.
           
Production growth for the third quarter of this year was also robust at 4.27 percent compared with the 2.33 percent posted in the same period last year despite the destruction caused by typhoons in late September.