El Niño triggers decline in crop production

File photo
File photo

THE National Economic and Development Authority (Neda)-Northern Mindanao reported a 27.9 percent decrease in the volume of vegetables, root crops, fruits and industrial crops in the second quarter of 2019.

Neda-Northern Mindanao traced the overall decline to the occurrence of the weak El Niño, which started in the later part of 2018 until July of this year, which brought damage to crop areas in the region.

Banana and pineapple, which contributed the largest share to total fruit production, showed negative harvests during the second quarter of 2019, registering 418,610 metric tons (a decrease of 0.19 percent) and 352,733 metric tons (a decrease of 0.09 percent), respectively.

Cassava, which contributed 98 percent of the total root crop production, was down by 6.8 percent due to shifting to corn production.

Neda-Northern Mindanao also recorded an almost 60 percent drop in the sugarcane production as smaller canes were affected by El Niño during vegetable stage.

Cacao and rubber, respectively, grew by 24.6 percent and 3.2 percent.

Meanwhile, an upward trend was noted in the first quarter's estimated value of selected commodities at P15.969 billion.

While there were reductions in the production volume of most commodities, the average values were dictated by the favorable increases in farm gate prices pushing the quarter's overall value to grow by more than ten percent.

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