FARM production fell in the third quarter as bad weather and outbreaks of swine fever led to contractions in the crops, livestock and fisheries sectors.

The value of agricultural and fisheries production, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Wednesday, fell to P397.4 billion in July-September, from P414.4 billion in the previous quarter and P412.7 billion of lei from the previous year.

The 3.7% decline worsened from -3.2% and -0.2% recorded in the second quarter a year ago.

The result will be affected by the economic growth of the period, data for which will be published today by the PSA.

Economists polled by The Manila Times Gross domestic product growth is expected to have slowed to 5.7% from 6.4% in the second quarter, below the government’s target of 6.0 to 7.0% for 2024, mainly due to public and private spending reduced.

Year-to-date, farm output was valued at 1.24 trillion pounds, down slightly by 2.2 percent from 1.27 trillion pounds in January-September 2023.

The Department of Agriculture cited adverse weather and an outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) as major contributors to the decline in production.

Crops, which represented the largest part, or 53.2 percent, of the total production, decreased by 5.1 percent, to 211.6 billion lei. The decline improved from -8.6% in the second quarter, when the sector’s output reached 220 billion lei.

Palay (unmilled rice), the country’s largest crop, saw production decline by 13.3 percent to 72.97 billion pounds. Bananas, in second place, at 38.93 billion lei, contracted by 1.1%.

Sugarcane represented the biggest decrease of 83.8%, to 392 million lei.

Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said the combined effects of El Niño and La Niña affected palay production, which accounted for 18.4 percent of total production during the quarter.

“We are implementing changes in the rice harvesting calendar and building infrastructure such as water catchment dams to mitigate the impact of climate change on the agricultural sector,” he said.

Livestock, with a share of 15.5 percent or 61.6 billion lei of total production, saw a 6.7 percent decline in the last quarter as production of pigs, goats and carabaos fell by 8, 0 percent, 4.1 percent, and 0.5 percent, respectively.

These offset the 6.0% and 0.9% gains seen in dairy and cattle.

Poultry was the only commodity group to see an increase in production value, up 5.8 percent. It represented 17.3% of the total production, at 68.6 billion lei.

There were increases in production for hen eggs (6.6 percent) and chicken (6.0 percent), but duck and duck egg production fell by 3.2 percent and 5.7 percent, respectively .

The value of fishery production, finally, decreased by 5.5 percent to 55.48 billion lei and accounted for 14.0 percent of total farm production. Losses were recorded for most of the monitored species, led by the group (lapu-lapu) which recorded the largest decrease of 31.9 percent.

Of the five species that posted gains, bigeye tuna increased the most at 40.1 percent.