MANILA, 22 January 2008 — Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are encouraged to invest their money 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 quickly 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 said that vegetable producers gained the most profits last year as this crops sub-sector 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. We have 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.
