MANILA, 25 January 2008 — Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) are being encouraged to invest on vegetables, among others, as vegetable production contributed the highest to the country’s gross agricultural growth rate of 4.68 percent in 2007.

Even the economic managers of the Asian Development Bank, World Bank and the National Economic Development Authority have decided to increase the targeted growth rate for agriculture during the middle part of 2007 when they saw that the sector was steadily bouncing up despite the expected dry spell and the unexpected storms that hit the country.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap told Arab News that vegetable producers gained the most profits last year as these crops contributed 47.56 percent in the total agricultural output, notwithstanding the impact of the super typhoons.

“Our kababayans may invest in fruits and vegetables because aside from the sure profits they will earn, it will ensure the country’s food security and will generate more employment for both the urban and rural areas,” he said.

The year 2008 will be a gainer for bananas, pineapples, mangoes, peanuts, mongo, camote, tomatoes, onion, cabbage, eggplant and rubber as production of these crops increased by 11.03 percent translated to a total gross income of P510 billion last year. “Local investments of OFWs are very much welcomed. The department has always been ready to assist any homecoming kababayan who would want to venture in agribusiness,” he stressed. Last year’s 5.57 percent expansion was recorded as the highest vegetable yield so far.

in the country’s history, contributing more than half to the P971.8 billion gross value of agricultural production, stated the 2007 Agriculture Performance Report presented to the media yesterday.

Palay production likewise increased to 12.16 percent while corn harvest yielded a 21.04 percent increase. This is translated to 350,000 metric tons of harvested palay and 200,000 metric tons of produced corn, enough to sustain the domestic demand for this year.

“The time has come for the Department of Agriculture to advocate for food production beyond 2008 for the country’s food sufficiency,” Yap noted.

Other gainers in the vegetable crop sub-sector were pineapples posting a 28.66 percent marked increase; bananas at 21.77 percent; rubber at 25.48 percent; mongo at 17.38 percent; peanuts at 12.29 percent; and camote at 6.56 percent. Cabbage production was another winner posting a high 34.88 percent for 2007.

Yap likewise reported that the agriculture sector bounced upward in 2007 despite the two super typhoons and a dry spell registering a 5.0 percent increase from the year 2006 of 4.5 percent agricultural growth rate.

Yap further said that the fishery sector also posted a high 6.81 percent increase in production. This despite super typhoon Lando hitting Region IV-B composed of Mindoro Occidental, Mindoro Oriental, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan last year.

Nevertheless, it had “no impact” at all to agricultural production in general.