EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - National Agricultural and Fishery Council ...

1. Poverty alleviation. Agriculture and fisheries grew by almost 3.5 percent
annually between 1999 and 2005, its best record since 1970s. However,
rural poverty remains a challenge. The lack of resources for AFMA was
contributory. The non-observance of the criteria for sound allocation of
funds was not also observed, e.g. such as grains vs. tree crops trade-off.
2. Food security. Agriculture growth invariably led to improved food
security. Rice, poultry and fishery contributed heavily. Good weather in
the 2000s also helped.
3. Rational use of resources. Allocation of resources from cost-benefit
analysis should be guidepost in investment. However, it appeared that
production support rather than marketing and R & D were given priority.
4. Global competitiveness. There were no significant product
breakthroughs in the export market over the past six years. The export
winners' list remained unchanged: banana, pineapple, tuna, seaweeds,
carrageenan, and some coconut products. Sugar started to become
competitive.
5. Sustainable development has economic, social and environmental
aspects. Public investment decision must be sound to sustain economic
development. For instance, farm incomes, especially for coconut farms,
did not increase as there was little flow of resources. Job creation could
have improved if the enabling environment for private investments was
favorable.
Where will AFMA go from here? Agriculture and fishery are the main occupations
in the rural sector. Rural poverty remains high. By government accounts, half of
the rural folks are poor; while 70 percent of the poor reside in the countryside.
Indeed, poverty is an agriculture phenomenon.
The Philippine Farm Sector. In 2005, agriculture and fishery produced P 775
billion (in gross value added at current prices). Crops contributed 58 percent,
livestock and poultry 22 percent, and fishery 15 percent. By crops, palay
provided 16.6 percent; coconut, 5.3 percent; banana, 4.4 percent; corn, 4.3
percent; and sugarcane, 2.4 percent. Other crops (tree crops, fruits, vegetables,
etc) had almost 25 percent of total output.
Philippine agriculture is predominantly small, unorganized farm holdings. Crops
occupied most of the farmlands. The 2002 Census of Agriculture revealed:
Some 4.8 million (M) farms covering 9.7 M hectares (ha). The average
farm size was 2.0 ha;
Some 40 percent of the farms were less than 1 ha (occupying 8.6
percent of area), 41 percent at 1 ha and below 3 ha (31 percent of
area); 10.6 percent between 3 to 5 ha (18.4 percent of area), and 6.3
percent, above 5 and less than 10 ha (19.8 percent of area). In effect,
about 90 percent of the farmers have less than 5 ha (58 percent of
area);
Some 97 percent were individual farms (94 percent of area); less than
0.2 percent were corporations (2.2 percent of area);
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