The production of the country’s major vegetables and root crops – except for potato – expanded in the third quarter despite a decrease in area planted, according to the latest report of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
Among the country’s top vegetable and root crops were ampalaya, mongo, cabbage, eggplant, onion, tomato, potato, sweet potato and cassava. Tomato registered the highest growth at 6.1 percent to 29,652.30 metric tons (MT).
Ampalaya production rose 2.7 percent to 20,134.70 MT, with Calabarzon producing the highest volume at 7,371.21 MT or 36.6 percent reports www.philstar.com
Eggplant output was up by 2.3 percent to 38,630.62 MT due to the expansion of hectarage and the seeds distributed by the Department of Agriculture’s regional field office.
Production of sweet potato increased by 2.2 percent to 138,678.02 MT. Onion recorded a 1.7 percent rise in output to 23.3 MT, with native onion cornering 56.9 percent of the total production.
Cabbage production increased by 1.2 percent to 12,481.34 MT as bigger heads were harvested due to sufficient rainfall during head formation, as well as non-occurrence of destructive typhoons in most areas.