BUDGET Secretary Florencio B. Abad said the government has allocated P91.1 billion this year to boost agriculture market outputs and create jobs in key cities and provinces.
He said that of the P2.606-trillion national budget for 2015, the government is allocating P89.1 billion to fund various programs of the Department of Agriculture (DA) and its attached agencies.
Abad said the funds are aimed “to promote more diversified, high-value and market-oriented crop and livestock production.”
Abad said the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has allocated P2 billion for the technical-vocational education in agriculture of Filipino youth to allow them to get quality jobs.
He said the funds will be used for the Training for Work Scholarship Program that aims to benefit some 210,526 enrollees. These youth beneficiaries are in the sectors of business-process outsourcing, semiconductor and electronics, and tourism, as well as other priority industries.
“The government pledges to translate rapid and sustained economic growth into more jobs by supporting the expansion of employment-generating industries,” said Abad in the DBM paper on national budget for 2015.
The budget chief said the allocation in the DA attached agencies also aims to link towns that fail to create jobs for its constituents to growth centers that need expansion of market.
These measures in the agriculture sector also aims to link farms and products to markets that will bring down the cost of transporting products and create jobs, as well.
Abad said the total infrastructure budget has been raised equivalent to 4 per cent of the gross domestic product.
“This budget focuses on programs and projects that further reduce poverty and vulnerability; support the creation of more jobs and livelihood opportunities; invest in climate-change adaptation and disaster-risk management,” Abad said.
Estrella Torres