Agri output marks increase

MAYOR Celso Lobregat has announced that the agriculture sector in Zamboanga City gained headway in 2012.

Lobregat made the announcement in his State of the City Address (Soca) report before the City Council on Monday, as he attributed it to the completion of P77.45 million of agriculture-related infrastructure projects last year.

Among the projects implemented by the local government are: 42 farm-to-market roads, P66.1 million; 10 irrigation projects, P10.25 million; and four solar dryers, P1.1 million.

However, Lobregat said the industrial crops declined by 8.41 percent from 8,809.55 metric tons (MT) in 2011 to 8,068.37 in 2012.

Lobregat said the production of rice increased by 5.59 percent representing 2,005.25 MT from 35,849.35 MT in the previous year to 37,854.60 MT last year.

The corn production registered an increase of 10.16 percent or 2,019.4 MT from 19,874.60 MT in 2011 to 21,894 MT in 2012, according to Lobregat.

The vegetable marked an increase of 2.27 percent in 2012 with 17,497.77 MT from the previous year’s production of 17,108.63 MT, he said.

The commercial crops have registered the highest production increase rate in agriculture with 17.93 percent representing 16,505.6 MT to 108,566.45 MT last year from 92,060.85 MT in 2011, he added.

The mayor foresees that the agriculture output will further increase this year with the implementation of more agriculture-support projects.