The country’s harvest area has contracted at an average of 0.5 percent annually in the past five years, according to the latest report of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
In its annual report, titled “Agricultural Indicators System: Output and Productivity”, the PSA said the total harvested area of agricultural crops in 2016 of 13.09 million hectares is nearly 2 percent lower than the 13.354 million has recorded in 2012.
The PSA report showed that the harvested area of palay production shrank by an average of 0.71 percent annually. Corn area harvested also contracted by 1.06 percent annually during the five-year period.
“Declining trends were exhibited by most of the other major crops during the five-year period,” the report read.
“Camote and onion indicated the biggest area declines, corresponding to average negative growth rates of 4.29 percent and 3.33 percent per year. Average yearly decreases ranging from 1.54 [percent] to 2.57 percent were registered in cabbage, tomato, mongo and peanut,” it added.
In 2016 the PSA said the country’s harvested agricultural crops hectarage reached 13.09 million hectares, 5.66-percent bigger than the 12.39 million has recorded in 2006.
Economist Pablito M. Villegas, vice president of the Confederation of Filipino Consulting Organization of the Philippines, attributed the contraction in harvested area to various factors, including land conversion and climate change.
“That is the impact of land conversion, the agricultural lands being urbanized and converted for housing projects, factories, and constrution,” Villegas told the BusinessMirror. “Another thing is land banking. Some are buying agricultural lands, big agricultural lands, which they would not be using for farming.”
Villegas said the risks posed by climate change are evident in the contraction in harvest area. “Strong typhoons, flooding, droughts have caused harvest area to shrink.”
He also said the perception that farming is not profitable may have driven farmers out of the agriculture sector. “There’s no incentive anymore for the farmers to produce or till the land. So they shift to more beneficial ones such as sari-sari stores or the construction sector,” he added.
“Farmers are not earning in the agriculture sector, because in the supply chain they are being victimized by traders, middlemen and money lenders, to the extent that farming has become a losing proposition,” he added.
The PSA report also showed that the farm sector’s palay and corn output during the five-year period declined at an annual average of 0.52 percent and 0.58 percent, respectively.
“A similar trend was exhibited by nine major crops, namely, coconut, sugarcane, banana, coffee, rubber, peanut, garlic, calamansi and cabbage,” it said.
“Calamansi posted a significant decline averaging 9.06 percent. This was followed by coffee at 6.16 percent, rubber at 4.69 percent and sugarcane at 3.97 percent,” it added.
The PSA releases the report as a monitoring indicator of the possible trends in the performance of the country’s agriculture sector.
“The performance of the crops industry can be monitored by looking at the changes in area, production and yield through the use of indices and growth rates,” it said.