High-value commercial crops like mango, cassava, onion, eggplant, and rubber posted more than double-digit increases during the same semester, Yap noted.

 The BAS reported that livestock production, which contributed 17.05% of the total farm production output at current prices, grew by 4.01%, grossing P79.6 billion in terms of value compared to last year’s level. 

 Carabao and dairy recovered from last year’s decreases, growing 3.94% and 3.84%, respectively, while hog output rose 4.88% at current prices, it said.

 In terms of value of production at current prices, the BAS said the poultry sub-sector grew 6.94%, with chicken bouncing back from last year’s slump, expanding 6.39%.

 At current prices, the BAS said the poultry sub-sector grossed P53.8 billion,  accounting for 11.52% of the total agricultural output for the first semester.

 Yap said the DA is now working on an array of intervention measures to help the farm sector grow, albeit moderately, in the second half of the year in the face of the prolonged dry spell that threatens to become a full-blown drought till end-December.

 The Secretary has spent most of the past two weeks inspecting the major dams of Angat in Bulacan, Pantabangan in Nueva Ecija, San Roque in Pangasinan and Magat in Isabela to assess the water situation and determine the intervention measures needed in the affected farms.

 The DA has been providing seeds, shallow tube wells, irrigation pumps and other forms of emergency assistance to farmers plus funds to irrigators’ associations for the repair or rehabilitation of their irrigation canals, in a bid to ease the adverse impact of the dry spell on four Luzon regions, namely, Central and Northern Luzon, the Ilocos Region and the Cordillera Administrative Region.

 It is also implementing a quick-turnaround planting program—involving a third planting season after the two regular ones with the use of early-maturing seeds that require less water—in the non affected farms, particularly in the Visayas and Mindanao, to further boost yields and offset the projected crop-production losses in Luzon farms. (PIA-Pagadian)

Last update : 25-09-2007 12:12

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