By Adrian H. Halili, Reporter
Agricultural output is expected to grow by 3% in 2025, a senator said at a plenary budget debate on Thursday, with the farm industry shrugging off a series of late-year calamities.
“For 2025, the estimate is about 3%, (which is) actually not bad for agriculture,” Senator Sherwin T. Gatchalian, who heads the finance committee, told the Senate plenary.
If realized this would be a reversal from the 2.2% contraction in 2024.
In the third quarter, farm output rose 2.8%, driven by the crops and poultry subsectors, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported.
Agriculture accounts for about a tenth of gross domestic product and a quarter of all jobs.
“We have been looking at agriculture output for quite some time, it is normally in the negative because of various reasons,” Mr. Gatchalian added.
“One of which is the typhoons and calamities that normally destroy the crops and reduces output,” he said.
Typhoons Kalmaegi (Tino) and Fung-Wong (Uwan) recently traversed the Visayas and Luzon, respectively.
The Philippines remains under a state of calamity after the storms.
Asked by Sen. Francis Pancratius N. Pangilinan if increased government spending would improve local farm growth, Mr. Gatchalian said: “Wise spending can lead to increase in output, increase in productivity, as well as address climate change or the effect of typhoons.”
“We need to make sure there is some sort of shock absorber so farmers can recover as rapidly as possible from the onslaught of typhoons,” he added.
According to the Senate’s version of the 2026 national spending plan, the chamber allocated the Department of Agriculture P159.23 billion, some P21.06 billion less than the House of Representatives budget bill.