An Overview of Agricultural Pollution in the Philippines : The Crops Sector 2016

The Philippine archipelago emerged because of the dynamic shifting and collision of four plates: Continental Eurasian plate, Indian-Australian plate, Oceanic Pacific plate, and the Philippine Sea plate. In the past 100 million years, the archipelago was welded together in an island arc punctuated by episodic and extensive magmatic activities. The country’s topographic landscape consists of towering mountains with steep slopes, undulating hilly upland areas, and flat lands. The rich volcanic soils, varied topography, seasonality of monsoon rains, abundant rainfall, and warm temperature enabled the suitability of land for planting various crops in the different islands. Being the staple food, both upland and irrigated rice is widely grown in various provinces all over the country. Yellow corn is largely grown in Isabela and Cagayan in Luzon; and in Bukidnon, North Cotabato and South Cotabato in Mindanao. The major growing areas for white corn are Mindanao and Visayas. Large plantations of banana, pineapple, coffee, rubber, and palm oil are located in Mindanao while large plantations of coconut are found in Quezon and Zamboanga. On the other hand, mango plantations are located in Pangasinan while tobacco is largely grown in the Ilocos Region and Isabela. Large areas are planted with sugarcane in Negros Occidental and Bukidnon. Temperate vegetables are grown largely in the cool high elevation areas of the Benguet Province while tropical vegetables are grown in the expansive areas in Pangasinan, Isabela, and Nueva Ecija in Luzon and in the Visayas Region. This report is part of a national overview of agricultural pollution in the Philippines, commissioned by the World Bank. The overview consists of three ‘chapters’ on the crops, livestock, and fisheries sub-sectors, and a summary report. This ‘chapter’ provides a broad national overview of: (a) the magnitude, impacts, and drivers of pollution related to the crops sector’s development; (b) measures that have been taken by the public sector to manage or mitigate this pollution; and (c) existing knowledge gaps and directions for future research.