MANILA, Philippines – The series of strong typhoons that entered the country in the second semester of the year dented the production of several industrial and staple crops, prompting the Agriculture department to review its flagship program on food staple production and institute various interventions for the subsector.
Significant expansion opportunities in the fisheries and animal industry sectors, however, have opened this year as the Philippines remained free from, avian influenza, foot-and-mouth disease and early mortality syndrome (EMS) that devastated the poultry, livetstock and shrimp industries of neighboring Asian countries.
After the onslaught of Typhoon Yolanda in November, the Agriculture department conceded that self-sufficiency in rice would not be attained this year.
Under the FSSP, self-sufficiency entails covering the annual domestic per capita consumption of 115 kilograms per year while still providing for the 90-day buffer stock requirement. After the super typhoon pummeled Visayas, the country is seen to attain a sufficiency level of 97 to 98 percent this year.
To beef up the country’s buffer stock, the National Food Authority Council approved the importation of 500,000 metric tons (MT) of rice from Vietnam which would be shipped in tranches until the end of the first quarter of 2014.
Even before Yolanda demolished rice cultivation areas in Visayas, Typhoon Santi battered in October 214,640 hectares of rice lands in central Luzon, putting pressure on the country’s rice production target of more than 20 million metric tons this year.
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Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala said that next year, the government would implement measures to ease pressure on rice production and intensify the implementation of the quick turnaround (QTR) program which would entail five croppings in two years.
The NFA for its part, would begin distributing brown rice and white corn grits to encourage the consumption of these alternative food staples.
The DA would also push for the implementation of the QTR and dry season cropping in more palay cultivation areas to secure the bulk of the targeted harvest before the onset of the typhoon season.
The government would also promote the use of hybrid rice seeds which are grown by both private and state entities.
The Philippine Rice Research Institure (Philrice) and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), for instance, has produced hybrid varieties Mestizo 19 and Mestizo 20 which yields more than seven metric tons per hectare.
Because of the high cost of hybrid seeds, some Fiipino farmers prefer to use certified seeds instead.
Philrice and IRRI, Alcala said, have produced inbred varieties 224, 222 and 168 which yields six to seven percent per hectare.
Agriculture undersecretary Dante Delima earlier said the DA National Rice Program would provide assisance to farmers growing hybrid rice in the form of farm mechanization and other farm inputs to help them defray costs.
The Agriculture department also plans to expand corn cultivation areas to provide for the growing feed requirements of the livestock industry and to get a piece of the corn exportation market by 2015 when Southeast Asian economies become integrated.
“Corn can become a main crop from trading after 2015 because we have the ability to produce. Our neighboring countries still import corn from the United States,” said Alcala in a recent interview.
“We just need to add more post harvest production facilities to improve corn quality,” he added.
The livestock and poultry sectors continue to enjoy high demand, being safe from animal diseases.
The National Meat Inspection (NMIs) office has tightened the accreditation process for meat importers, lessening competition from inferior quality meat from overseas.
Higher year-on-year famgate prices have been encouraging the animal industry to produce steadily.
Several reforms were implemented in the fisheries subsector to reverse years of negative growth.
The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources is now giving more attention to aquaculture of high value marine species to revive the sector and take advantage of overseas demand for certain aquatic cultures like shrimp.
The Philippines has resumed the exportation of vannamei (white shrimp) this year after diseases that plagued the industry more than 15 years ago closed opportunities to growers.
Local shrimp growers are now aggressively exporting to Singapore, Japan and the United States where demand is particularly strong.
The Philippines has also gained this year an extended fishing access to tuna-rich high seas pocket 1 of the Pacific ocean until 2017 because of adherence to good conservation practices.
Agriculture trade deficit
While the Philippines is not yet prepared to directly compete with agriculture powerhouses in Asia in terms of exportation, the Agriculture department has been grooming various farm subsectors to be less import dependent.
At the same time, the country’s agricultural trade attaches in various locations overseas have been instructed to closely observe the consumption patterns of the locales in their posts to open up new markets for major farm and fisheries products to further narrow the trade deficit.
Aside from premium rice, the Philippines has begun to revive this year the exportation of spices such as ginger, garlic, onion and tamarind to food processors.
The Agriculture trade deficit narrowed 70 percent in the first semester of the year on faster growth in exports and slowdown of imports.
Data released by the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) showed that the country’s agricultural trade deficit fell to $424.43 million from $1.43 billion in the same period last year.
Revenues from agricultural exports, which comprised 12.62 percent of the country’s total exports for the period, rose to $3.23 billion, up 30.68 percent from $2.47 billion in the same period last year.
The country’s expenditure for agricultural imports slowed down 6.27 percent to $3.65 billion in the first six months of the year from P3.90 billion in the same period last year.
Agricultural trade with Japan and the European Union improved with trade surpluses at $430.58 million and $319.73 million respectively.
Trade deficits were seen with Australia, ASEAN, the US and other countries.
Earnings from the country’s top 10 farm exports grew 30.84 percent to $2.24 billion from $1.71 billion. These are coconut oil, bananas, tuna, pineapples and pineapple products, manufactured tobacco, centrifugal sugar, seaweeds and carrageenan, copra oil/cake, desiccated coconut, and manufactured fertilizer.
Coconut oil remains as the local agricultural sector’s top dollar earner despite a 0.28 percent drop in earnings, bringing in $538.31 million during the fist six months of the year.
Increased incomes were seen for copra oil/cake, centrifugal sugar, bananas, tobacco, and tuna with growths in revenues ranging from 53.89 percent to 73.58 percent.
Import expenditures for the country’s top 10 imports fell by 6.97 percent. These are wheat, soybean oil/cake meal, milk cream and products, manufactured fertilizer, bovine meat, coffee, rice, urea, manufactured tobacco, and tuna.
