DA sees 3.5% growth in 2019 for agriculture, fisheries

Philippine Agriculture is expected to post a positive 2.5% to 3.5% growth in 2019, way above the national target of 2% as the crops and fisheries sectors are projected to perform well with the interventions to be implemented by the government through the Department of Agriculture.The Rice Industry is expected to post a record harvest of 20-million metric tons next year mainly because of the Rice Tariffication Program which assures the rice sector of P10-B additional funding every year.With P10-B, the DA through the PhilMech will provide farmers with machinery and equipment worth P5-B, free high-yielding seeds worth P3-B from PhilRice, P1-B for credit through Land Bank and P1-B in training through the Agricultural Training Institute.This amount is on top of the regular funding for the National Rice Program which has an annual allocation of P7-B in the budget.The Rice Sector posted a historic high harvest of 19.28-m metric tons in 2017 and was projected to hit 19.4-m for 2018 until Super Typhoon Ompong devastated the rice producing region of Cagayan Valley in September reducing the 2018 production projection to 19.1-m.The grains production program which mainly promoted Corn is expected to post positive production figures with the launching of the Sorghum Development Program which aims to cover about 100,000 for 2019 with a projected production of 2-million metric tons.Fisheries, which has continuously registered negative performance because of years of neglected and abuse of the fishing grounds, is projected to post its first positive growth in recent years with the implementation of the Post-Harvest Facilities Program, the support for fish cage production program and the rehabilitation of the country's Bangus and Tilapia hatcheries.Under the Post-Harvest Facilities Program, fishing grounds all over the country will be provided with small ice-making and cold storage facilities, including other equipment such as fish dryers and hauling trucks, to stop massive post-harvest losses.The Food and Agriculture Organization estimated that the country's Fisheries sector loses 40% of its catch because of the absence of post-harvest facilities such as ice-makers in the fishing grounds.Earlier this month, about 100 fishermen's organisations applied for loans under the Agriculture and Fisheries Machinery and Equipment Loaning Program to buy fishing gear, ice-making equipment and trucks at 2% interest per year 8 years to pay.The livestock and poultry sectors which posted tremendous growth even with the challenge posed by imported chicken and meat products are expected to benefit from the spread of the African Swine Fever in China and Europe which would effectively stop the importation of pork from those areas.The DA's Village Level Feed Mill Program will also be implemented in 2019 assuring rural and backyard hog and poultry raisers of low cost feeds using raw materials produced by local farmers.For 2019, the DA will engage the Agriculture and Veterinary Agency of Singapore for the prospective export of meat and poultry products, including high value vegetables to Singapore.The country's high value products which include Cacao, Coffee, Abaca, Mango and Rubber are expected to be boosted with the completion of the Development Road Map for each sector which sets programs and directions.The Coconut Industry which has been reeling from the very low world market prices of Copra is expected to be buoyed up with the approval of the Coconut Levy Utilization which would enable the Philippine Coconut Authority to establish Village-Level Processing centers from other products such as Virgin Coconut Oil, Coco Sugar, Coco Syrup, Coco Chips, Bottled Coconut Water, Coco Peat and Coco Coir.The Rubber Industry, which like the Coconut Industry has also been reeling because of very low prices of raw rubber in the world market, is also expected to make a recovery with the projected increase of prices.An organized group of rubber farmers, the Philippine Rubber Farmers Cooperative is expected to launch in January 2019 its local motorcycle and hand tractor tire manufacturing program with the support of the DA and its credit agency, the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC).The launching of the first ever Pilipinas Agila Motorcycle and Hand-tractor Tires next month is seen as the first move in elevating rubber farmers from just being raw material producers to high value products processors.The DA financing programs the ACPC, such as the Production Loan Easy Access Program (PLEA), the Survival and Recovery Assistance Program (SURE) and the Machineries and Equipment Loan Program, farmers and fishermen, are expected to boost production and of Philippine Agriculture.The PLEA Program which was launched on June 23, 2017 has released a total of P1.143 billion to 36,716 borrowers from 45 provinces while SURE released a total of P109.29 million to more than 9,400 borrowers from provinces affected by natural calamities.The PLEA program, which has been boosted with an increased funding of P3.4-B in 2019, has a repayment rate of 97% and has been identified by the Philippine Statistics Authority as one of the most successful productivity and anti-poverty programs of government.A new credit program for farm machineries and equipment, the AFME, has set aside a total of P400-M in credit funds which fishermen's groups are now accessing.These credit interventions, the consistent implementation of the farm to market road programs under the World Bank's Philippine Rural Development Program (PRDP) and the regular FMR program and the introduction of new technology like the Solar Powered Irrigation System, are expected to consistently boost Agriculture and Fisheries performance in 2019 and the years to come. 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