Farm sector seen growing by 7%

MANILA, Philippines - The Agriculture sector is expected to grow at a faster pace of 7 percent this year, boosted by higher investments in the farm sector.

This according to estimates of the Department of Agriculture, whose outlook for 2008 was presented by Gov. Joey Salceda during a meeting of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) board last Friday.

For 2007, the farm sector was expected to grow by 4.5 percent.

Although the 2007 figure was "decent", agriculture officials said the growth rate could have been higher had it not been for the typhoons that adversely affected farm output.

Neda figures showed that among the key sectors of the economy, agriculture, fisheries and forestry (AFF) posted the slowest growth of 5.6 percent in the third quarter of 2007. The industry sector, including mining, expanded by 6.1 percent, while the services sector grew by 7.2 percent.