Worst not yet over for farm sector - Business Mirror

“The [lackluster performance] of the farm sector would be [evident] for the entire year. The ‘best-case’ scenario is for the sector to post a negative 1-percent growth rate. The worse-case scenario is a negative 2.5-percent growth rate,” said University of the Philippines economist Benjamin Diokno in a telephone interview.

While the El Niño may soon end, Diokno said the Philippines has to watch out for the damage that may be caused by typhoons. The Philippines is usually visited by an average of 20 typhoons a year.

Dr. Rolando Dy, University of Asia and the Pacific’s (UA&P) agribusiness expert, however, is less pessimistic about the prospects of the farm sector for 2010.

I would say that the first half [of the year] will be on the negative side, but there’s room for recovery in the second half,” said Dy in an interview.

From: http://ping.fm/W7ery