A farmers’ group knows too well the 1.6 percent growth in the agricultural sector is mere statistics, so there won’t be much celebration for them.

The country’s agriculture managing to grow in the second quarter while other economic sectors declined is nothing out of the ordinary for the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) which said it does not reflect the actual and real situation of Filipino farmers.

“This supposed growth is negligible and has no tangible effect and impact on the overall state of agriculture and livelihood of farmers and food producers,” KMP chair Danilo Ramos said in a statement.

Ramos noted the latest growth rate announced by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) was even much lower and underscored further weakening of the agriculture.

Proving his point, he cited figures that showed the annual average growth in agriculture from 2017 to 2019 was at 2.2 percent, lower than the 3.5 average agriculture growth for the previous years.

“There is a steady slowdown of growth in agriculture under the Duterte administration. Local agriculture has been in a slump for three consecutive years,” Ramos said.

“Almost 1.4-million jobs in agriculture were lost from 2017 to 2019, unprecedented in PH history. This record is the most agricultural jobs lost in a given three-year period for the past 21 years,” he added.

Last week, the PSA reported that the Philippine economy contracted by a record 16.5 percent from April to June this year.

In the second quarter, the agricultural sector posted 1.6 percent year-on-year growth while industry fell 22.9 percent and services dropped 15.8 percent.

But group asserted Agriculture Secretary William Dar is only banking on this gain to justify the government’s Plant, Plant,Plant program and the approval of the P66-billion agriculture stimulus package.

“The country is now in a technical recession -- practically an affirmation of the decades-old chronic economic crisis brought about by the government's neoliberal policies," Ramos said.