PH delivered in ’25 best farm output in 8 years
Philippine farm output expanded by 2.6 percent in 2025, the fastest pace seen in eight years, beating the official target and giving a much-needed boost to the overall economy.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that the value of agriculture and fisheries production had amounted to P1.77 trillion in 2025, compared with P1.73 trillion a year ago.
This marked the highest growth since 2017, when local agricultural output had climbed by 4.3 percent.
“We’re now laying the groundwork for a smarter, climate-resilient agriculture,” Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said in a statement on Wednesday.
He cited investments in cold storage, drying facilities, silos, upgraded rice processing systems, greenhouses and smart irrigation.
In the fourth quarter of 2025 alone, agricultural production slightly rose by 0.5 percent to P487.04 billion.
“The rebound in agriculture, with the sector expanding by 2.6 percent in 2025, provides a welcome lift to overall economic performance after last year’s weather‑driven contraction,” Ruben Carlo Asuncion, chief economist at UnionBank of the Philippines, said in a Viber message to the Inquirer.
“Agriculture’s 2.6 percent growth in 2025 is a modest but positive support for GDP (gross domestic product), especially since the sector still employs a large share of workers and feeds into food inflation dynamics,” John Paolo Rivera, senior research fellow at Philippine Institute for Development Studies, told the Inquirer.
Despite the farm sector’s meager economic contribution, both Asuncion and Rivera said services sector and investment activity would largely influence headline GDP growth.
The fourth quarter economic report is due today.
Rivera said that while the agriculture sector was unlikely to be the main driver, this could nevertheless “provide a small upside while services and investment trends will remain more decisive.”
“Instead, what this improvement signals is resilience—an indication that better weather conditions and ongoing recovery efforts in the countryside are supporting a more balanced growth profile for the economy,” Asuncion said.
Agriculture Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa said the overall farm production could have been higher if not for the typhoons that had struck the country in the last quarter of 2025.
However, de Mesa said the latest imprint “surprisingly” surpassed the Department of Agriculture’s 2025 farm growth target of 1 percent to 2 percent amid mixed performance of certain subsectors.
Raul Montemayor, national manager of Federation of Free Farmers, said total agricultural production increased by around P45 billion between 2024 and 2025, much lower than the budget and money invested by the government for the sector during the year.
“[This] begs the question – why is the sector not growing significantly despite the billions being poured into various support programs?” Montemayor said.
“We need a thorough review and radical reconfiguration of government support programs for the sector, not a ‘more of the same, just increase the budget’ approach,” he added.
Among subsectors, poultry posted the highest growth, up 9.1 percent to P304.71 billion. All poultry commodities, except duck eggs, registered increases.
Crops, which account for more than half of the agricultural output, climbed by 2.8 percent to P986.81 billion. Palay output alone inched up by 3 percent.
“Stronger output in crops and poultry helped stabilize supply conditions and eased food price pressures, which in turn supported household consumption heading into year‑end,” Asuncion said.
“Higher crops and poultry output could help cushion overall growth and ease some supply-side price pressures but the decline in livestock and fisheries suggests uneven recovery and continued vulnerabilities from weather shocks and input costs,” Rivera said.
Livestock decreased by 2.3 percent to P246.42 billion, which according to the DA, is a reflection of “lingering structural challenges in the sector.”
Hog output dropped by 2.7 percent despite an expansion in the last quarter, with the DA saying it signals a sustained recovery following the first African swine fever outbreak in 2019.
Meanwhile, fisheries were slightly lower at P233.7 billion, reflecting mixed performance across species.
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