BAGUIO CITY, Nov. 25 (PIA) - - The Cordillera Administrative Region ranked fourth among regions in the country in terms of growth in the agriculture sector in 2019 with around P28.8 billion contribution to the Gross Regional Domestic Product(GRDP).

In the 2019 GRDP released by the Philippine Statistics Authority, Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing (AFF) sector of the region grew by 4.2, the fourth highest growth rate in production in agriculture and a big rebound from a negative growth of 3.5 percent in 2018.

Cagayan Valley with 6.6 growth in agriculture tops the list, followed by 5.3% of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao and the 4.4% growth rate in Ilocos Region.

Crop production is the major contributor in agriculture with 80.7% of the region's agricultural produce and the remaining 13.7% is spread over livestock, poultry and fisheries. Cordillera also registered the highest crop production among the 14 regions.

Expansion in agriculture is also largely attributed to higher palay and corn production that was made possible by good weather conditions that prevailed last year, the PSA reported.

In the 2019 Cordillera GRDP, Services contributed around P214.18 billion (66%), Industry share is around P77.56 billion (24.1%) while agriculture contributed around P28.88 billion (9.3%).

PSA - CAR Regional Director Villafe Alibuyog reported that in terms of the region's overall economic performance, Cordillera economy grew at 4.3% with a GRDP of around P321.61 billion. The region's 2019 economic growth is slower than the 5.7% growth in the previous year.

For the 2019 Gross Regional Domestic Expenditures or GRDE, Alibuyog reported that Cordillera remains to be one of the regions with the least domestic expenditures with a GRDE of around P321.61 billion which is 1.7% in terms of contribution to the national gross domestic expenditures.

The GRDP is the statistics that shows that measures a region's economy while GRDE is the statistics that shows the expenditures of the residents of the region in the domestic territory plus their expenditures in other regions and the rest of the world.

Alibuyog led members of the Regional Statistical Committee in the data dissemination of the 2017 - 2019 Economic Performance of CAR here last Nov. 20. (JDP/CCD-PIA CAR)