Agriculture in the Philippines is a major sector of the economy, ranking third among the sectors in 2022 behind only Services and Industry. Its outputs include staples like rice and corn, but also export crops such as coffee, cavendish banana, pineapple and pineapple products, breadfruit, coconut, sugar, and mango. The sector continues to face challenges, however, due to the pressures of a growing population. , the sector employs 24% of the Filipino workforce and it accounts for 8.9% of the total GDP.

The Philippines is one of the most vulnerable agricultural systems to monsoons and other extreme weather events, which are expected to create more uncertainty as climate change affects the Philippines. However, the Food and Agriculture Organization has described the local policy measures as some of the most proactive in risk reduction.

History

Present day

In 2022, the country's chief economist Arsenio Balisacan said that Philippine agriculture was in crisis, citing such issues as the high price of meat and rice and low profitability for farmers.

The Philippine Development Plan places a priority on the modernization of the agriculture sector.

Farmers There are 10.66 million people employed in agriculture in the Philippines. The average daily wage for farmers is PHP331.10. Men on average earn PHP335.00 a day, while women earn an average PHP304.60 a day.

Many of the Philippines' farmers operate small-sized farms which have been granted to them as a result of several decades of land reform programs. While land reform is enshrined in the Philippines' 1987 Constitution as a means of ensuring the welfare of small farmers, the land distribution component of these land reform programs has largely not yet been followed through with the agricultural services and infrastructure development needed to make these smallholder farms economically efficient or productive. Economists such as Bernardo M. Villegas have cited the potential of interventions such as Farmers' Cooperatives which would allow smallholder farms to achieve the economies of scale needed to become more economically viable.

Many Filipino farmers live in poverty due to a combination of factors, including economic policy, environmental, land ownership issues, and government corruption.

Profession

Grains Rice

The Philippines is the 8th largest rice producer in the world, accounting for 2.8% of global rice production. The Philippines was also the world's largest rice importer in 2010. In 2010, nearly 15.7 million metric tons of palay (pre-husked rice) were produced. In 2010, palay accounted for 21.86% percent of gross value added in agriculture and 2.37% of GNP. Self-sufficiency in rice reached 88.93% in 2015.

Rice production in the Philippines has grown significantly since the 1950s. Improved varieties of rice developed during the Green Revolution, including at the International Rice Research Institute based in Los Baños, Laguna Province, have improved crop yields. Crop yields have also improved due to increased use of fertilizers. Average productivity increased from 1.23 metric tons per hectare in 1961 to 3.59 metric tons per hectare in 2009.

Harvest yields have increased significantly by using foliar fertilizer (Rc 62 → 27% increase, Rc 80 → 40% increase, Rc 64 → 86% increase) based on PhilRice National Averages.

In 2024, the Philippines produced 19.1 million metric tons (MMT) of palay, the lowest in four years, while the production of bigas (milled rice) fell to 12.4 MMT and is below the projected rice consumption of 15 MMT for 2025. Falling production has been attributed to climate-related disasters and may also be due to environmental degradation, farmer landlessness, and lack of government assistance.

The government has been promoting the production of golden rice. p.443 However, in April 2023, the Supreme Court of the Philippines issued a Writ of Kalikasan ordering the Department of Agriculture to stop the commercial distribution of genetically modified rice and eggplants in the country.

The table below shows some of the agricultural products of the country per region.

Region Rice Corn/maize Coconut Sugarcane Pineapple Watermelon Banana Ilocos Region 1,777,122 490,943 39,463 19,512 197 26,936 43,164 Cordillera 400,911 237,823 1,165 51,787 814 141 26,576 Cagayan Valley 2,489,647 1,801,194 77,118 583,808 35,129 7,416 384,134 Central Luzon 3,304,310 271,319 167,737 678,439 1,657 7,103 58,439 Metro Manila 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Calabarzon 392,907 64,823 1,379,297 1,741,706 88,660 2,950 96,306 Mimaropa 1,081,833 125,492 818,146 0 448 3,192 168,299 Bicol Region 1,264,448 243,908 1,105,743 239,010 130,595 5,598 76,452 Western Visayas 1,565,585 213,362 294,547 1,682,940 12,687 83,336 200,222 Negros Island Region 557,632 185,747 274,315 13,440,259 9,468 546 157,974 Central Visayas 269,801 101,333 274,069 241,573 998 1,161 126,220 Eastern Visayas 955,709 91,145 1,165,867 179,363 7,186 670 227,223 Zamboanga Peninsula 661,775 220,180 1,682,121 107 1,657 638 281,856 Northern Mindanao 725,120 1,216,301 1,851,702 3,065,463 1,468,386 2,024 1,832,173 Davao Region 441,868 224,100 2,246,188 208,743 26,880 1,070 3,455,014 Soccsksargen 1,291,644 1,239,275 1,159,818 680,383 794,334 2,132 1,159,091 Caraga 653,431 118,774 804,722 0 2,682 3,010 259,738 Bangsamoro 488,215 673,036 1,393,168 113,343 921 80 531,048

Corn/maize

Corn/maize is the second most important crop in the Philippines. 600,000 farm households are employed in different businesses in the corn value chain. , around of land is under corn cultivation and the total production was . The government has been promoting Bt corn for hardiness against insects and higher yields.

Other food crops

Chocolate

Coffee

Coconuts

Coconuts play an important role in the national economy of the Philippines. According to figures published in December 2015 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, it is the world's largest producer of coconuts, producing 19,500,000 tonnes in 2015. Production in the Philippines is generally concentrated in medium-sized farms. There are 3.5 million hectares dedicated to coconut production in the Philippines, which accounts for 25 percent of total agricultural land in the country. In 1989, it was estimated that between 25 percent and 33 percent of the population was at least partly dependent on coconuts for their livelihood. Historically, the Southern Tagalog and Bicol regions of Luzon and the Eastern Visayas were the centers of coconut production. In the 1980s, Western Mindanao and Southern Mindanao also became important coconut-growing regions.Ronald E. Dolan, ed. Philippines: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1991.

Fruits

The Philippines is the world's third largest producer of pineapples, producing more than 2.4 million of tonnes in 2015. The Philippines was in the top three banana producing countries in 2010, including India and China. Davao and Mindanao contribute heavily to the total national banana crop. Mangoes are the third most important fruit crop of the country based on export volume and value next to bananas and pineapples.

Sugar

There are at least 19 provinces and 11 regions that produce sugarcane in the Philippines. A range from 360,000 to 390,000 hectares are devoted to sugarcane production. The largest sugarcane areas are found in the Negros Island Region, which accounts for 51% of sugarcane areas planted. This is followed by Mindanao which accounts for 20%; Luzon by 17%; Panay by 07%; and Eastern Visayas by 04%. It is estimated that , the industry provides direct employment to 700,000 sugarcane workers spread across 19 sugar producing provinces.

Sugar growing in the Philippines pre-dates colonial Spanish contact. Sugar became the most important agricultural export of the Philippines between the late eighteenth century and the mid-1970s. During the 1950s and 60s, more than 20 percent income of Philippine exports came from the sugar industry. Between 1913 and 1974, the Philippines sugar industry enjoyed favoured terms of trade with the US, with special access to the protected and subsidized the American sugar market.

Negros famine

Animal agriculture

Aquaculture

Crocodile

Ostrich

Other crops

Abaca

According to the Philippine Fiber Industry Development Authority, the Philippines provided 87.4% of the world's abaca in 2014, earning the Philippines US$111.33 million. The demand is still greater than the supply. The remainder came from Ecuador (12.5%) and Costa Rica (0.1%). The Bicol region in the Philippines produced 27,885 metric tons of abaca in 2014, the largest of any Philippine region. The Philippine Rural Development Program (PRDP) and the Department of Agriculture reported that in 2009–2013, Bicol Region had 39% share of Philippine abaca production while overwhelming 92% comes from Catanduanes Island. Eastern Visayas, the second largest producer had 24% and the Davao Region, the third largest producer had 11% of the total production. Around 42 percent of the total abaca fiber shipments from the Philippines went to the United Kingdom in 2014, making it the top importer. Germany imported 37.1 percent of abaca pulp from the Philippines, importing around 7,755 metric tons (MT). Sales of abaca cordage surged 20 percent in 2014 to a total of 5,093 MT from 4,240 MT, with the United States holding around 68 percent of the market.

Rubber

There are an estimated 458,000 families dependent upon the cultivation of rubber trees. Rubber is mainly planted in Mindanao, with some plantings in Luzon and the Visayas. , the total rubber production is 111,204 tons.

Government

The Food and Agriculture Organization described local policy measures as some of the most proactive in risk reduction.

The government supports the approval and cultivation of genetically modified crops. However, the Supreme Court issued injunctions against genetically modified products in 2015 and 2023. Farmers and environmentalists have held demonstrations and filed court petitions protesting the promotion, cultivation, and sale of genetically modified products in the Philippines.

Department of Agriculture

Land reform

Environmental and social issues

Deforestation

Some agricultural practices, including export crops and encroachment by small farmers, lead to deforestation. Deforestation may in turn affect water supply needed by farms.

Water supply and soil quality Due to the loss of watershed areas, water supply and quality have decreased. Deforestation has also resulted in erosion and siltation, leading to worsened water quality.

Heavy use of chemical fertilizers have also led to declining soil quality.

Climate change

Farmer landlessness Most Filipino farmers do not have their own land and landlessness among farmers is worsening. According to the Philippine Census of Agriculture and Fisheries in 2012 and 2022, 4.3 million farm workers (21.8%) own their agricultural land, while 15.2 million (78.2%) do not own their land.

Barriers to land ownership of farmers include the failure of various national land reform programs, land grabbing, which is often accompanied by threats and violence against farmers, and ownership by foreign corporations, such as Dole and Del Monte, which have controlled pineapple and banana plantations since the U.S colonial occupation.

Philippine peasant organizations mark the Global Day of the Landless on March 29.

Land conversion