Agriculture
Philippine agriculture plays a vital role in the country’s economy. Seventy percent of the Philippine population lives in rural areas, and two-thirds of these people depend on farming for their livelihood. In terms of employment, about one-half of the labor force is engaged in agricultural activities. The sector’s contribution to the economy is important, but has declined from 23 percent of GDP in 1995 to 14.5 percent in 2003. After years of erratic performance, the growth rate of agriculture strengthened to 5.5 percent in the first quarter of 2005.
Philippine agriculture is a mix of small, medium, and large farms. The majority of the farms average about two hectares (ha.), and are family-owned and operated. Two-thirds of all farms in 1988 were no larger than three ha. Eighty-five percent of all farms were no more than five ha. A typical subsistence farm produces a major crop (e.g., rice, corn, or coconut) and a few heads of livestock and poultry. From 1986 to1996, the proportion of small farms has been expanding as a result of effective implementation efforts under the Agrarian Reform Law (R.A. 6657). As a result, however, agriculture generally suffers from low productivity, low economies-of-scale, and inadequate infrastructure support. Prior to agrarian reform, large plantations produced rubber, coffee, oil palm, cacao, banana, and pineapple. Contract growing schemes operate in corn seeds, banana, tomato, cucumber, oil palm, asparagus, and broiler chicken.
Land resources in the country are generally classified into forest land, alienable land, and disposable land. The Philippines has a total land area of 300,000 square kilometers, or 30 million ha., of which 13 million ha. are classified as agricultural land. Prime agricultural lands are located around the main urban and high population density areas.
Agricultural land is distributed among food grains, food crops, and non-food crops. Food grains occupied 31 percent (4.01 million ha.), food crops used 52 percent (8.33 million ha.), while 17 percent (2.2 million ha.) were used for non-food crops. For food grains, the average area used by corn was 3.34 million ha., while rice occupied 3.31 million ha. Of the total area under food crops, coconut accounted for the biggest average harvest area of 4.25 million ha., sugarcane with 673,000 ha., industrial crops with 591,000 ha., 148,000 ha. with fruits, 270,000 ha. with vegetables and root crops, 404,000 ha. with pasture, and 133,000 ha. with cut flowers.
In recent years, the government has placed a high priority on the transformation of agriculture into a modern, dynamic, and competitive sector. It is believed that a sustained expansion of the national economy requires sustained growth in the agricultural sector.
