Farm and fishery sector, no. 1 job creator in RP

Legazpi City (23 July) — Almost half a million jobs were generated from the farm and fishery sector this year, making it the top job generator for the first quarter of 2009, according to Presidential Economic Adviser and Albay Governor Joey Salceda.

Salceda on Tuesday said that based on data of the Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics, employment in the farm and fisheries sector as of April 2009 was estimated at 12.318 million, which is higher by 3.47 percent compared to 11.905 million for the same period last year.

“Philippine agriculture created more jobs than the trade sector, which only ranked second with 345,000 jobs,” he added.

He said “this proves that the Arroyo government’s decision to reverse 30 years of official neglect of the agriculture sector through sustained, higher public investments is now reaping positive results.”

The government has also increased spending for agriculture, focusing on irrigation and other rural infrastructure which already yielded positive results with the increased of palay rice production by 5.1 percent or double its average growth a year ago.

The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) has also fast tracked rehabilitation and restoration work of irrigation system that has allowed farmers to plant an additional 69,000 hectares of farmland or 5.7 percent more than last year.

The administration of President Arroyo has increased spending on agriculture, P25.36 billion in 2007, P35.39 billion in 2008 and P46.86 billion this year.

Salceda further recommended to the government to pour more “stimulus funds” into the country’s agriculture, particularly into irrigation, to sustain the sector’s resilience and its status as a primary growth driver even in the midst of a global financial contagion.

“Without the agriculture growth contribution, GDP [gross domestic product] would have been sub-zero. Despite the obvious odds, its 2.1-percent increase in gross value added may not be stellar but it was the highest among the sectors which best proves the logic of government budgetary stimulus, specifically to the Department of Agriculture,” he said.

He added that the Department of Agriculture’s policies in the last two years have enabled the agriculture sector, which accounts for 20 percent of the economy, to remain resilient while every other sector had gone into a slump.

From 2001, the start of the Arroyo presidency, to the present, the government was able to generate a total of 8.95 million jobs in the private sector and at least 12 million jobs were created through government projects, according to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). (PIA V)