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Wednesday, September 24, 2003
NorMin economy overcomes obstacles: Neda 10
By Rubelyn Yap
THE dollar drop notwithstanding, the regional economy continued to experience growth albeit at a modest pace.
The Regional Development Council (RDC) 10 said Northern Mindanao's economy showed resiliency and showed varying trends in production for different crops.
Regional Director Myra Balandra of the National Economic Development Authority (Neda) 10 said palay production did not perform as well as last year while corn production continued to be strong.
She said the increases in yield per hectare for both palay and corn reflect improving efficiencies in our production processess.
"This shows that we have improved on our management of the controllable factors/inputs in agricultural production," she said.
The director added the peanut production suffered the largest decrease by almost 20% as the dry spell disrupted the planting scdedules of most crops.
Production depended on the resiliency of various crops to the dry spell.
Balandra said while some fruits registered substantial increases in production, many did not perform as well.
"The dry weather condition seemed favorable for mango and watermelon, which experienced increases by 28 percent and 24 percent respectively while durian production also increased and pineapple maintained its production level," she said.
Banana production, the second biggest fruit crop next to pineapple, went down 15 percent while other fruits weren't affected except for rambutan, which went up seven percent.
Among the commercial crops, sugarcane registered a 4.2% increase, which could be partly attributed to the shifting by some farmers in the earlier periods in anticipation of the dry spell.
Meanwhile, the dry spell and better post harvest facilities favored abaca production that turned out a 1.29 percent increase.
Most of the other commercial crops suffered a decline due to the lack of expertise in handling harvesting and processing as well as peace and order problems.
Balandra said sugarcane topped outputs among the cash crops and Bukidnon remained a major agricultural producer for many products.
"A more rationalized and aggressive intervention program for this province should reap much more gains in the future, especially that the agricultural sector has remained the major employer in the region," she added.
(September 24, 2003 issue)
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