Author:

Fe B. Perlas

Professor Central Bicol State University of Agriculture San Jose,

Pili, Camarines Sur, Philippines

e-mail: fbperlas@yahoo.com

The Philippines is an agricultural country with a land area of 30 million hectares, 47% of which is agricultural land. Of the total area under food crops, coconut accounted for the biggest average harvest area of 4.25 million hectares, Sugarcane with 673 thousand hectares; Industrial crops with 591 thousand hectares; 148 thousand hectares for fruits; 270 thousand hectares for vegetables and rootcrops; 404 thousand hectares for pasture and 133 hectares for cutflowers.

The country's main agricultural crops are rice, corn, coconut, sugarcane, bananas, pineapple, coffee, mangoes, tobacco, and abaca. Secondary crops include peanut, cassava, camote (a type of rootcrop), garlic, onion, cabbage, eggplant, calamansi (a variety of lemon), rubber, and cotton. The Philippines is still primarily an agricultural country despite the plan to make it an industrialized economy. Most citizens still live in rural areas and support themselves through agriculture. The country's agriculture sector is made up of 4 sub-sectors: farming, fisheries, livestock, and forestry (the latter 2 sectors are very small), which together employ 39.8% of the labor force and contribute 20% of GDP. The fisheries sector is divided into 3 sub-sectors: commercial, municipal, and aquaculture (cultivation of the natural produce of bodies of water). The Philippines exports its agricultural products around the world, including the United States, Japan, Europe, and ASEAN countries (members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations). Major export products are coconut oil and other coconut products, fruits and vegetables, bananas, and prawns (a type of shrimp). Other exports include the Cavendish banana, Cayenne pineapple, tuna, seaweed, and carrageenan. Imported agricultural products include unmilled wheat and meslin, oilcake and other soybean residues, malt and malt flour, urea, flour, meals and pellets of fish, soybeans and whey.

The Philippines has been identified as one of the country’s most at risk from climate change, with the Global Climate Risk Index 2018, released by Bonn-based NGO German watch, ranking the country as the 5th most affected by changing weather patterns over the past 20 years. Among the changes in climatic conditions has been the more frequent occurrence of El Niño weather cycles, often characterized by lower rainfalls and higher temperatures, threatening crop outputs. The last major El Niño event, in 2015 and 2016, reduced harvest yields by 4.5% and cut returns along the food production and processing chain. Agriculture grew by 1.80 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018. Crops, livestock, poultry and fisheries contributed to the higher production during the quarter. The Philippines is making efforts to modernize and strengthen its agriculture sector, with both the state and private companies promoting the adoption of advanced technology and smart farming methods to increase harvests and minimize losses.