ILOILO City – The agriculture and fisheries sectors of Western Visayas have remained strong amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), according to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) here.
In a virtual conference on Friday, NEDA Assistant Regional Director Engr. Arecio Casing Jr. said the outputs from palay went up by 44.04 percent, corn by 4.93 percent and commercial fisheries by 21.85 percent during the period when the region was placed under varying levels of community quarantine classification.
Other sectors that showed increased performance were chicken and aquaculture at 3.31 percent and 12.88 percent, respectively.
Casing said one of the reasons for the increase as cited by the Philippine Statistics Authority in agricultural and fishery production was the implementation of various interventions of the Department of Agriculture. These include the infusion of fertilizers, seeds and financial aid.
“So we can see the effects of government intervention to our agricultural sector and that’s in the production, and this is one of the strengths of our region,” said Casing. (with PIA-6/PN)
