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II
Agri
Performance
II Im/export
Trade II
Sales & Demand
II
Sources and Supply
II
Stats
II
Agriculture
Performance
In the last four
years, the Philippine economy has an annual growth rate of 4.5%
for GNP and 4.05% for GDP. About 19.7% of the GDP was contributed
by agriculture sector. During the last three years, the share of
agriculture in the total government expenditures ranged from 3.83
percent to 4.38 percent. Agricultural production loans amounted to
P120.92 billion in 2002 with about 42.59 percent going to food
items. Credit support in agriculture has not expanded. From 1.1
percent in 2001, the ratio of agricultural loans to total loans
granted even contracted to 1.0 percent in 2002 (2003, BAS). In 2003, agricultural growth is 3.77% despite of
the occurrence of typhoon during the third quarter. Also the farm
gate prices of agricultural commodities were increased by
2.17% on the average. Due to increase in land value
the number of farms decreased by 2.36% from 4.61 million in 1991
to 4.5 million in 2002 (NSO, 2002). The decreased was due to the
transformation of the agricultural lands into residential and
industrial sites. Most of these activities were noted in Regions
III and IV where industrial expansion takes place due to proximity
to Metro Manila. In Region IV alone 25,711 hectares were converted.
Average farm area decreased by 2.04 ha in 2002 from 2.16 ha in
1991. With this decreased in farms, demand for machinery will
be affected. Table
1 shows the number and percent distribution of farms by regions.
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