By Madelaine B. Miraflor The country's agriculture sector went down by nearly 1 percent for the first time in more than a year, but was valued 7 percent higher at P409 billion as prices of goods spiked during the last three months. Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol And with merely two months left for the year, an economist doubt the sector will still be able to recover. A data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) released yesterday showed that the agriculture sector contracted by 0.83 percent in the third quarter of 2018, which was a steep decline from the 2.32 percent growth recorded in the same period last year. The decline was attributed to the decline seen in crops and fisheries subsectors. For the first nine months of 2018, agriculture posted a 0.15 percent increase in output. The agriculture sector, within the last three months, had to endure the brunt of Typhoon Ompong, which destroyed P27 billion of the farm output in Northern and Central Luzon. Rolando Dy, executive director of the University of Asia and the Pacific's Center for Food and Agri Business, said that because of this, among the other typhoons that hit the country in the past months, the performance of the sector in the fourth quarter will "likely be low negatives to flat." Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol shared the same sentiment, saying that he's not seeing a "rosy picture" for the sector for this year as the country still anticipates more typhoons in the next few weeks. At current prices, the gross value of agricultural production amounted to P409.0 billion, up by 6.82 percent from the previous year's record. To recall, the increase in the cost of agriculture commodities and fuel were considered as the main drivers of the country's inflation, which zoomed to 6.7 percent, its highest level in nearly 10 years, in September. In October, inflation remained at a nine-year high of 6.7 percent. Going back to farm output, the crops subsector, which shared 45.58 percent in the total agricultural output, recorded a 3.64 percent decline in production. Palay and corn production dropped by 5.70 percent and 14.83 percent, respectively, while output gains were recorded by coconut, sugaroane, banana, pineapple, coffee, mango, tobacco, abaca, tomato and rubber. At current prices, the subsector's gross earnings amounted to P214.1 billion, higher by 1.93 percent from the same period last year. From January to September 2018, the gross output of the crops subsecfor went down by 1.38 percent. Production in the fisheries subsector also declined by 2.64 percent. It shared 17 .08 percent in the total agricultural output. At current prices, the gross earnings of the subsector stood at P64.1 billion, higher by 12.22 percent from the previous year's level. For the first semester, the subsector posted a 2.21 percent drop in production. Meanwhile, production in the livestock subsector grew by 2.15 percent, while the poultry subsector produced 5.45 percent more output this period. On the average, prices received by farmers increased by 7.71 percent as prices for all the subsectors also went up. In total, farmgate prices increased by an average of 6.85 percent for the period January to September. Still suffering from the wrath of Typhoon Ompong, the agriculture sector now has to deal with the damages and losses incurred by Typhoon Rosita, which hit some parts of Northern and Central Luzon last week. Typhoon Rosita has destroyed as much as P3 billion worth of the country's farm output. Rice is the most damaged agriculture commodity during the typhoon, followed by high value crops including coffee, fruit trees (banana, mango and rambutan), and assorted vegetables. Corn, livestock, and fisheries were also affected.