ECONOMY

Philippine economy is agriculture-based, with vast farmlands planted to staples such as rice and corn. The country is also the world's largest producer of coconuts. Other sectors like mining fishing, manufacturing electronics, and other industries also contribute significantly to the economy of the nation.

 

Productivity The Philippine has some areas with rich volcanic and alluvial deposits, and in general, the soil is fertile. Self-sufficiency in rice was achieved in the '70s through extensive irrigation of major river basins. New seed varieties and techniques make it possible for upland farmers to increase their income through multi-cropping and water impounding.

Kaingin Farming Also known as slash-and-burn farming, it's prevalent among upland people throughout the islands. Forest is cleared by leveling trees and underbrush, then burning any remaining cover. Kaingin farming is an ancient form of agriculture, appropriate to regions where the regions where the land can't support constant cultivation and inhabitants are thinly spread.

Rice & Corn is the staple food of the majority. Its cultivation is deeply embedded in the culture. Varieties total over,1000. A single place such as Sagada (Mountain Province), for example, grows about 25 varieties, each valued for a different virtue: ability to grow in poor locations, flavor, or suitability for brewing rice-wine.

The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) at Los Baños (Laguna), has developed new varieties of "miracle rice" that ripen in only four months; Central Luzon harvests three crops annually. Yields of upland rice, or the second, short-season lowland crop, are substantially lower than those achieved in lowland, long-season, single crops. Yield is measured in cavans (50 kilograms) per hectare.

Corn is also planted in almost everycorner of the nation.

Abaca Commercially known as Manila hemp, abaca is the most prominent of several hundred types of fiber that grow in the islands. It makes the world's best rope due to its tensile strength, suppleness, durability, and resistance to saltwater and swelling. Technically, abaca is a short, slender, inedible species of banana. Its main growing areas are the Bicol Peninsula, Samar, Leyte, Panay, and Davao. Once the tree is 18-24 months old, mature stalks can be harvested every four to six months at any time of the year. Processing must begin promptly after cutting. Leaf sheaths are removed and the strong, water-resistant fibers, which may be 3.5 meters long, are extracted.
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The Philippines is the world's top producer and exporter of abaca. It has been woven into clothing by tribal Filipinos since early times.

Abaca fiber, which can be soft and fine or hard and coarse, is three times as strong cotton. It's processed into marine rope, cable, heavy twine, string, webbing, netting, matting, and sacks; paper products including tea-bag filters, meat casing, disposable diapers, lens paper, banknotes, wrapping paper, newsprint, paper bags, and tags; and is woven into a wide variety of handicrafts, such as bags, baskets, slippers, place mats, wall covering, and several types of cloth, including Iloilo's sinamay, and the superb textiles of Mindanao tribes. "Manila" envelopes and folders are named after the distinctive beige paper produced from abaca.

 

 

Tobacco The Spanish introduced tobacco, and Philippine cigars became world famous before tastes shifted during the 1930s and 40s from cigars to light, aromatic cigarette tobaccos. The best cigars, such as Alhambra and Tabacalera still regarded as excellent. Tobacco growing-native leaf tobacco (used as cigar filter), plus Virginia and Burley Valley varieties-is concentrated in the middle Cagayan Valley, Ilocos, and the northern part of the Central Plain, though small quantities are widely grown on many small farms. In the Cagayan Valley, large plantations produce native leaf tobacco, though here too, planters have responded to the domestic cigarette industry's demand for Virginia leaf tobacco.

Industry is heavily geared toward producing consumers goods for the domestic market and processing primary products for export. Major industries are based on food and beverages, copra, tobacco, lumber, pulp and paper, textiles and garments, chemicals, and minerals.

Processing facilities increase the value of exports and create jobs.

Multinational corporations operate in both the manufacturing and services sectors and play a major role in the local economy. At the Mariveles (Bataan) and Mactan (Cebu) export-processing zones, foreign corporations have built plants to assemble imported components using local labor.

Livestock Pigs, chickens, ducks, goats, and cattle are raised, but meat production, especially of beef, doesn't match demand, while only a small proportion of milk requirements are produced. Although the extensive gracing lands of Masbate and central Mindanao support some large ranches, the environment isn't well-suited to cattle from Australia and New Zealand. Carabao (water buffalo), widely used as work animals, are also eaten and milked. Certain towns are centers of egg production, e.g., Santa Maria (Bulacan), while Pateros (Metro Manila) is noted for the popular delicacy, balut (fertilized duck eggs).
 

Fishing The total percentage catch annually is about two million metric tons: 63% from local fishermen who use small boats and relatively simple gear; 29% from larger commercial boats fishing deeper water; and eight percent from inland fisheries, primarily fishponds.

The industry has grown in recent years; exports, especially of tuna is usually taken directly from boat to market. Drying, salting, fermenting, and smoking are common, due to limited refrigeration capabilities.

Aqua culture
Fish farming is most prevalent on the northern shores of Manila Bay, along Lingayen Gulf, in Laguna de Bay, and on Negros and Panay, though less than a third of the Philippine's 200,000-plus hectares of brackish water is being cultivated. The water in rice paddies is also utilized to raise mud fish and catfish. Prawn culture has also been started in several provinces, among them the traditional sugar-growing provinces in the Visayas. Seafaring is an expanding activity, too, and sales of shrimps and million a year are exported. The tropical climate allows three harvest a year, and the technology is constantly improving. Other products include oysters, mussels, and seaweed.Fisheries Program
A five-year fisheries program was launched by the government in 1990 to promote environmental regeneration of targeted coastal areas and to increase the productivity of the fisheries sector. The program is partially funded by the Asian Development Bank.