Agri growth target still achievable – DA
Agriculture growth could still hit the 4-percent target for this year given expectations of bumper harvests and government interventions, a Cabinet official said.
Second quarter growth was basically flat, increasing by only 0.07 percent and bringing the first-half result to just 0.58 percent, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported last week.
“It is true that the sector’s performance in the second quarter is negligible,” Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Pinol said.
“But it is not reflective of the performance of the sector for the whole year because even PSA was saying that they are projecting bumper harvest of rice for this year,” he added.
Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia last week pointed to the agriculture sector, among others, as having contributed to a second-quarter economic slowdown to 6.0 percent from 6.6 percent in the first three months of year.
He said the government, in response, was preparing a raft of “temporary” measures to improve food supply, including cuts to import duties on certain products and the lifting of rice shipment quotas.
Pernia also called on the Agriculture department to conduct a comprehensive review and reforms of policies and programs that restrict access to land and the use of land, access to technology and extension services, access to finance, and access to markets.
In response, Piñol said the department was working on utilizing its budget for programs that would help ensure food security.
“You know you cannot milk an emaciated cow. You want agriculture to produce more? Fund it. And that is the position of the agriculture sector today,” he said.
The Agriculture department wants Congress to approve a P55.9-billion for 2019, the bulk of which bulk of which will go to the rice sector.
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