THIS YEAR, AGRICULTURE HAS PROVEN ITSELF
ONCE MORE TO BE THE LYNCHPIN OF THE PHILIPPINE ECONOMY. Despite
the lingering effects of the Asian financial crisis and the El
Niño/La Niña phenomena, the sector's production
grew by 6.49%.
The remarkable performance of the agriculture
sector in 1999 was largely attributed to palay harvest of 11.8
million MT, posting a growth rate of 37.78%, the highest ever
recorded over the past three decades.
The agriculture sector's growth was
also reinforced by the 4.6 million MT harvest of corn which is
19.92% more than that of last year and the highest in the last
20 years.
The livestock sub-sector grew by 4.23%,
for a 14.05% share in the 1999 total production while the fisheries
sub-sector expanded by 2.68%.
The farmers and fisherfolk benefited
so much from these increased production levels. Prices they received
for their produce outstripped the inflation rate from 8.7% to
5.7%. This surplus proves that increases in farm incomes have
more than coped up with the growth in the basic cost of living.