Agriculture has been the lifeblood of the economy of Negros Occidental, which, in general, is still an agricultural province. Hence, one of the 7 point agenda of the present administration is geared towards food security and agricultural productivity. As such, data on agriculture and fishery is important in guiding our policy makers, executives and implementors in development planning and other related activities that focus on achieving this goal. Agriculture, fishery and agrarian reform data speaks also of status on poverty, social equity and income of a group of people in a certain community. Statistical information on this area can also be of use to investors for identifying areas potential for agricultural development and related investments.
This chapter presents provincial data on crops, livestock, poultry, fishery, status of Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) and irrigation development programs. It also includes data on sugar industry not only in Negros Occidental but also the total Philippine data as well. Sources of these data are the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist, Bureau of Agricultural Statistics, National Irrigation Administration, Department of Agrarian Reform, and Sugar Regulatory Administration.
Palay production reached 484,781 MT in 2006 with 444,293 MT coming from the irrigated areas based on the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist data. There was an increase in the average yield from 3.70 MT per hectare in 2002 to 4.17 MT per hectare in 2006. A huge increase was observed in the yield of irrigated areas pegged at 4.25 MT per hectare on the same year, which was even higher than the average yield. The increase in production caused the increase in sufficiency level to 89.66 percent from 85.52 percent in 2002.
Much of this improvement could be the effect of the focus of the provincial government on food security and agricultural productivity. To further develop the rice industry in Negros Occidental, Philippine Rice Center was established in the province in 2004 to accommodate the needs of Negrense towards a better production of rice for food security.
Most agricultural crops can be grown in the province because of our abundant water source, fertile lands and relatively favorable climate. High value crops can be grown commercially complementing the sugarcane farms.
Corn which is considered one of the staple foods aside from rice reached 63,230 MT in 2006. Consistently for five years, the top leading fruits in production are the following: coconut (120,935,950 Kg), banana (78,019,600 Kg), mango (14,296,770 Kg), papaya (2,054,910 Kg), pineapple (4,591,890 Kg), watermelon (568,150 Kg), lanzones (476,700 Kg), and durian (249,510 Kg), among others.
Hog
is a surplus commodity in the province with a total production of
415,956 MT of pork in 2006. With vast lands and dedicated &
highly skilled labor, the livestock industry is a complementary
industry to the sugar industry. Chevon, which is the meat of the
goat, has reached a production of 128,903 MT and is considered an
emerging meat industry which is creating its own niche in the meat
market. Other emerging livestock industries in the province include
Ostrich Farming, Quail Farming and the Fighting Cock Farming. The
province is deficit in its table egg production.
Fish
is still another commodity in the province with a production of
81,952 MT in 2006. It is observed, however, that there has been a
decrease of 6.5 percent in the fish production since 2002.
The Visayan Sea and Sulu Sea is still waiting to be exploited by Deep Sea/Commercial fishing.
The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) has covered an existing service area of 18,560.61 hectares in 2006 which is 20 percent of the total potential irrigable area identified by the same office at 94,296 hectares.
Through
the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program the Department of Agrarian
Reform has reached distributed 58.2729 hectares of land to 41
beneficiaries in 2006.
The gross tonnes cane milled in the 10 different mill district reached 9,926,590 metric tonnes from the 165,058 hectares of harvested cane land from February 2006 to August 2007. The raw sugar production on the same crop year was pegged at 1,115,435 metric tons comprising almost 50 percent of the total Philippine production. Negros Occidental has also 3 refineries located at the northern parts of the province producing 10,409,056 50-kg bags which is 48 percent of the refined sugar production in the country. The by-products of sugar on the same crop year have the following production: molasses – 420,271 MT; filter cake – 391,835 MT; and bagasse – 3,389,507 MT. Supporting the sugar industry are the 13,742 planters owning 11,926 farms with a total area of 162,590 hectares.
Another product of sugarcane is muscovado sugar or internationally known as “Organic Sugar” which is fast becoming a household necessity due to its “health benefits”. The existing producer of muscovado sugar in Negros which is Alter Trade Corp. is trying to cope up with the international demand. There are also small cooperatives who are producing organic muscovado sugar.