Agriculture Secretary William Dar said the drop in the agriculture sector’s contribution to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020 was “negligible” and even took this as a sign of recovery for the sector.

“We have sound fundamentals – with systems and policies already in place that would allow us to bounce back strong in 2021 and beyond," Dar said in a statement.

“We are on the right track. After this so-called ‘force majeure’ we really don’t have anywhere to go but up,” he added.

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that the country’s GDP went down by 9.5 percent in 2020, its worst level since 1947.

Among the three major economic sectors, agriculture contracted by a minuscule 0.02 percent, while the services and industry dipped by 5.5 percent and 4 percent, respectively.

In 2020, the agriculture sector logged in a 0.3 percent contraction during the first quarter and managed to grow 1.6 percent and 1.2 percent during the second and third quarter of the year, respectively, making it the only sub-sector in the Philippine economy that registered growth at the time.

However, after a series of typhoons in November and December, the sector contracted by 2.5 percent in the fourth quarter, pulling down the full-year growth rate to -1.2 percent, a separate data from PSA showed.

Despite the decline, Dar said agriculture will continue to be a “driving force as the country pushes ahead with recovery amid the Covid-19 pandemic”.

“The onslaught of the 'perfect storm' — starting with the eruption of Taal Volcano, continued incidence of the African Swine Fever (ASF), and a series of strong typhoons that ravaged the country in the latter part of the year—have pulled down sector performance. We have learned from these crises. Now, we will turn these lessons into opportunities to recover strongly,” Dar said.

"A big consolation was that the crops sub-sector posted a positive 1.5 percent growth, despite strong typhoons in October and November 2020," he added.

For this year, the DA targets a 2.5 percent growth for the sector.

“The agri-fishery sector was doing rather well during the protracted lockdown. With or without the pandemic, the reality is that people will need to eat, and farmers and fishers will have to continue to produce most of the nutritional requirements of some 109 million Filipinos and counting,” Dar said.