PHILIPPINE agriculture recorded a growth of 0.7 percent in 2019. This was the year we imported massive amounts of rice from Vietnam and Thailand to meet the needs of our people and to keep the national inflation rate down. This was achieved by ending all quantitative restrictions on rice imports in the closing weeks of 2018.
The move brought rice prices down, and because rice is the basic part of the Filipino diet and its price affects all other market prices, the inflation rate which had gone as high as 6.7 percent in September, 2018, was down in 2019. Then in August, 2019, a new secretary of agriculture – William Dar – was named by President Duterte.
Secretary Dar has long been involved in Philippine agriculture as he served as the agriculture secretary in the shortened administration of President Joseph Estrada. The other day, he reiterated his goal of a progressive annual growth of Philippine agriculture of 2 percent this year 2020, 3 percent next year 2021, and 4 percent in 2022.
These are modest goals, in comparison with the contributions of other sectors of the economy. The biggest contributor to the Philippine economy today is services, including tourism and the work of our overseas Filipino workers (OFWs); it contributes 59.8 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Industry contributes 30.6 percent. Agriculture contributes 9.6 percent.
We will probably continue to depend heavily on services for some years as the major pillar of our national economy. We also have hopes for industry, but the greatest room for improvement is probably in agriculture, considering our land and water resources. It only needs to be systematically developed.
Secretary Dar stressed the need for such a systematic approach, anchored on science and research to develop the best varieties of rice and other crops suited to our lands, on the production of and export of commodities where we have a comparative advantage, on a systematic promotion of Philippine farm and fishery products worldwide, on enhanced coordination with provincial and other local governments, and on greater understanding of the weather to minimize losses from typhoons, rains, and other weather problems.
At this time when the whole world appears to be facing an economic slowdown because of the coronavirus, the Philippines’ services sector – particularly its tourism and its OFWs – appears to be specially vulnerable. Its manufacturing sector, which is largely for export, is also facing difficulty.
Philippine agricultural exports are also likely to suffer, but we should go ahead with raising our own basic needs, particularly rice, so that we no longer need to import heavily every year from Vietnam and Thailand. If, in the process, we also achieve Secretary Dar’s goal of agriculture contributing 2 percent of GDP this year, that would be doubly welcome.
