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Figure 5. Major Agricultural Activity, 1991
Rice is the most important food crop, a staple food in most of the country.
It is produced extensively in Luzon, the Western Visayas, Southern Mindanao,
and Central Mindanao (see fig. 5). In 1989 nearly 9.5 billion tons of palay
were produced. In 1990 palay accounted for 27 percent of value added in
agriculture and 3.5 percent of GNP. Per hectare yields have generally been
low in comparison with other Asian countries. Since the mid-1960s, however,
yields have increased substantially as a result of the cultivation of
high-yielding varieties developed in the mid-1960s at the International Rice
Research Institute located in the Philippines. The proportion of "miracle"
rice in total output rose from zero in 1965-66 to 81 percent in 1981-82.
Average productivity increased to 2.3 tons per hectare (2.8 tons on
irrigated farms) by 1983. By the late 1970s, the country had changed from a
net importer to a net exporter of rice, albeit on a small scale.
This "green revolution" was accompanied by an expanded use of chemical
inputs. Total fertilizer consumption rose from 668 tons in 1976 to 1,222
tons in 1988, an increase of more than 80 percent. To stimulate
productivity, the government also undertook a major expansion of the
nation's irrigation system. The area under irrigation grew from under
500,000 hectares in the mid-1960s to 1.5 million hectares in 1988, almost
half of the potentially irrigable land.
In the 1980s, however, rice production encountered problems. Average annual
growth for 1980-85 declined to a mere 0.9 percent, as contrasted with 4.6
percent for the preceding fifteen years. Growth of value added in the rice
industry also fell in the 1980s. Tropical storms and droughts, the general
economic downturn of the 1980s, and the 1983-85 economic crisis all
contributed to this decline. Crop loans dried up, prices of agricultural
inputs increased, and palay prices declined. Fertilizer and plant nutrient
consumption dropped 15 percent. Farmers were squeezed by rising debts and
declining income. Hectarage devoted to rice production, level during the
latter half of the 1970s, fell an average of 2.4 percent per annum during
the first half of the 1980s, with the decline primarily in marginal,
nonirrigated farms. As a result, in 1985, the last full year of the Marcos
regime, the country imported 538,000 tons of rice. The situation improved
somewhat in the late 1980s, and smaller amounts of rice were imported.
However, in 1990 the country experienced a severe drought. Output fell by
1.5 percent, forcing the importation of an estimated 400,000 tons of rice.
Data as of June 1991
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