PHILIPPINES AGRICULTURE SECTOR:
THE 2002 SCENARIO

The number of farms in the country decreased by 2.36 percent, from 4.61 million in 1991 to 4.50 million in 2002. The number of farms of the agricultural operators residing in the National Capital Region (NCR) totaled 23,035 farms. NCR above other regions is the posted the highest increase of 52.18 percent when compared to the 1991 figure.

NCR ranked as the least in terms of the number of farms and the smallest farm area

A total of 413,749 farms placed Western Visayas at the top with a total physical area of 637,895 hectares of land. Bicol Region ranked second in terms of the number of farms (378,069) while its land area (878,161) hectares was the biggest among the regions. Central Visayas Region ranked third with 361,277 farms and a total physical area of 417,365 hectares. As expected, NCR had the least number of farms (23,035) with an area of 69,715 hectares.

Average farm area down to 2.04 hectares

The 4.50 million farms in the country stretched to 9.19 million hectares of agricultural land. This means that the average farm size was 2.04 hectares used for raising crops, fruit trees, livestock, poultry or in any other agricultural activity. These figures were lower as compared to 4.61 million farms and an area of 9.97 million hectares reported in 1991 with an average farm area of 2.16 hectares.

Among the regions, NCR (National Capital Region) ranked second in the highest average physical area of farm at 3.03 hectares.