Agricultural production is expected to bounce back this quarter due to the absence of any major weather disturbance.
“Based on data that we are seeing… Initial data show it is possible to grow since we don’t have a major calamity, not much typhoons as well. Crops production is also good. We also expect continued growth in the livestock and poultry sub-sectors and hopefully, fisheries can recover as well as its decline in the third quarter is quite susbstantial,” said Arnel de Mesa, DA assistant secretary for operations, at the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon public briefing yesterday.
The Philippine Statistics Authority is scheduled to release the agricultural production performance for the fourth quarter and full year 2023 in January.
Agriculture production value in the country dropped 0.3 percent in the third quarter pulled down by the crops and fisheries subsector.
In the first nine months of the year, the value of production in agriculture and fisheries at constant 2018 prices registered a 0.2 percent increase.
The fisheries sub-sector recorded the biggest drop in the third quarter of 6.1 percent in value of production at constant 2018 prices. For the nine-month period, the sub-sector contracted by 7 percent.
In the third quarter, the crops sub-sector experienced a 0.4 percent decline in value of production at constant 2018 prices while its value for the first nine months of 2023 was up 0.9 percent.
The poultry sub-sector had the biggest increase in production in the third quarter of 2023 equivalent to a growth of 2.9 percent while its value for January to September 2023 is equivalent to a 2.5 percent increase.
Livestock enjoyed a 2.5 percent increase in the third quarter and a 2.4 percent growth in the first three quarters of the year.
