Agricultural Policies in the Philippines
This report analyses Philippine agricultural policy. Agriculture provides 30% of total employment in the Philippines and represents 11% of its Gross Domestic Product. The Philippines has had notable recent overall economic success, yet improving agricultural performance remains challenging. Productivity growth lags behind other Southeast Asian countries, and a number of policy distortions hinder progress. With agricultural land resources also under pressure from frequent natural disasters, rising population and urbanisation, the report offers a series of recommendations to improve the sector’s performance and its ability to adapt to climate change.
Assessment and policy recommendations
This Review, undertaken in close co-operation with the Philippine Department of Agriculture (DA), assesses the performance of agriculture in the Philippines over the last two decades, evaluates Philippine agricultural policy reforms and provides recommendations to address key challenges in the future. The evaluation is based on the OECD Committee for Agriculture’s approach that agriculture policy should be evidence-based and carefully designed and implemented to support productivity, competitiveness and sustainability, while avoiding unnecessary distortions to production decisions and to trade. At the DA’s request, the Review includes a special chapter highlighting key challenges to be addressed to improve the adaptive capacity of agriculture to climate change.