Agricultural and fisheries production in the Philippines contracted 5% by value year on year in the third quarter, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported, reversing the 3% growth recorded a year earlier, as crops and fisheries encountered setbacks from elevated fuel and fertilizer costs and weather disruptions.

At constant 2018 prices — a fixed base-year measure that strips out price changes for like-for-like comparisons — the value of production in agriculture and fisheries reached P389.42 billion, down from P408.94 billion in the same period a year earlier. The latest reading also marks a slowdown from the second quarter's 2.9% expansion.

“Meanwhile, the values of livestock and poultry production increased,” the PSA said.

In a statement, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said the stronger-performing livestock and poultry sectors provided a “foundation for recovery” as the Department of Agriculture (DA) prepares farmers and fisherfolk for El Niño, the periodic warming of sea-surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific that typically brings below-normal rainfall and dry spells to the Philippines. How the sector fares as those preparations proceed will come into view in the PSA's fourth-quarter figures.

Former Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar has said the third quarter has always been the most challenging period for production in most calendar years. According to Mr. Dar, erratic weather patterns, the habagat (southwest monsoon), and flooding affect output in most years, while rising fuel and fertilizer prices driven by the Middle East war have added further pressure on agriculture in general.

Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG) Executive Director Jayson H. Cainglet said inadequate government support and import-oriented policies were discouraging farmers as they made production decisions.

Crops

Crop output fell 9.3% to P197.71 billion, with the subsector accounting for 50.8% of the total value of agricultural production. A year earlier, crop output had risen 3% to P218 billion. Crop production had declined 2.4% in the first quarter and rose 1.6% in the second. Over the first nine months of the year, crop output slipped 3.1%, reversing the 5% growth posted a year earlier.

Palay, or unmilled rice, the raw form of the country's staple grain, posted a record decline, falling 17.8% against a year-earlier gain of 12.6%. The PSA said the third-quarter reading reversed the 5.7% increase recorded in the three months to June.

Corn output fell 17.4%, deepening the previous year's 2.9% decline. In the second quarter, corn output had risen 0.8% year on year.

Other crops posting sharp declines included sugarcane (minus 48.4%), onion (minus 32.6%), and abaca (minus 11.6%). Also lower in the third quarter were cabbage (minus 9.3%), cassava (minus 5.3%), sweet potato (minus 4.6%), potato (minus 4.2%), banana (minus 2.2%), coffee (minus 1.5%), and mongo, or mung bean (minus 0.4%).

Ampalaya (bitter gourd) output jumped 43.5%, reversing the year-earlier decline of 5.1% and far outpacing the second quarter's 2.2% rise in value.

Other commodities recording production growth were tobacco (26.7%), cacao (8.9%), tomato (4.3%), eggplant (2.2%), coconut (1.2%), rubber (0.8%), mango (0.7%), calamansi (0.59%), pineapple (0.58%), and other crops (9.7%).

Mr. Dar said via Viber that rice and corn weighed heavily on the quarter's results. — Maria Mikaela H. Tormon