The Kalinga provincial government is looking to tighten its existing policies on land conversion within its borders to address a supposed decline in its agricultural industry.
Flordeliza Moldero, provincial planning and development coordinator, said that former agricultural lands were being converted into other zones, causing the region’s output to dwindle.
“We have seen in our compendium and statistics that we have a decreasing production area due to premature conversion. The former agricultural production areas were converted into a settlement or commercial or housing project or resorts,” she said.
Based on data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Kalinga’s agricultural industry has been on the decline since 2021.
The Kalinga agriculture, forestry and fishing sector shrank by 0.2 percent in 2023 after posting a decline of 1.8 percent in 2022, according to PSA data.
However, Kalinga has had the smallest decline in agricultural output regionwide, with other provinces posting higher declines according to PSA.
Land conversion is blamed for the contraction, among other factors including the drought during the first semester of 2023, and Typhoon Egay and Super Typhoon Goring in the second semester.
As Kalinga produces the largest chunk of the region’s rice and has agriculture as one of its biggest sectors internally, the provincial government is looking to have the provincial development council establish more stringent efforts to arrest the continued conversion of its agricultural sector land into residential and commercial spaces.
