The Department of Agriculture (DA) will use a big chunk of its 2023 P163.7-billion budget to boost farm production and forestall a looming food crisis.
In a presentation during the budget hearing of the House Committee on Appropriations, Agriculture Undersecretary Mercedita Sombilla said the 2023 budget of the DA will ensure availability of safe and nutritious food, boost local production, cut production costs and increase farmers and fisherfolk’s income.
“We are presenting the 2023 budget based on priority areas that the secretary and President [Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.] wants to achieve in the immediate term,” she said.
“Boosting local production is the main strategy of the DA in response to the looming food crisis,” Sombilla added.
Representing President and Agriculture Secretary Marcos, Agriculture Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban said DA will focus on increasing food production, lowering of food prices and the creation of new employment opportunities and stable incomes for the rural poor.
“National programs [of the DA] are designed to guarantee food security, international cooperation and rural progress,” Panganiban said.
Moreover, for 2023, Sombilla said the DA and its attached agencies will receive P163.7 billion, or P46.5 billion higher than 2022’s P117.2-billion allocation.
Sombilla said the Masagana Rice Program, which seeks to help 2.30 million farmers, will receive P30.55 billion next year.
She added that P4.60 billion will be allocated for fisheries production to distribute 1,109 boats to 1,142 fisherfolk, 5.73 million pieces of broodstocks and 2.85 million pieces of fingerlings.
She said P1.66 billion will be allocated for vegetable production and P4.2 billion Integrated National Swine Production Initiatives for Recovery and Expansion (INSPIRE) program, which include 395 barangay to be released from quarantine.
The DA budget will also include P1.1 billion for coconut industry development, P5.2 billion for local feed development, P40.8 billion for irrigation development and P120 million for aquaculture feed mill.
For the modernization of the agriculture sector, Sombilla said the P10-billion Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund will be allotted for distribution of agricultural machineries and equipment, distribution of 1.8 million bags of inbred seeds, to train 61,130 farmers and 50,7000 farmers will be provided with scholarships.
The DA will also implement a P87.3 million adaptation and mitigation initiatives in agriculture and P110.8 million to the Bureau of Agricultural Fisheries Engineering.
For logistics and mobilization, the DA said P13.15 billion will be allocated to construct 1,064,88 kilometers of farm-to-market roads.
The agency said Kadiwa selling activities will receive P18.1 million, while the enhanced Kadiwa program will get P249 million. The food mobilization or Kadiwa food system will receive P267.6 million next year.
The Philippine Rural Development Program will receive P5.99 billion, the market development services for fisheries products will receive P39.7 million and fish ports and fish landings will get P5.3 billion in 2023.
For credit and financial assistance, the DA said P2.7 billion amounts of loans will be granted to 37,250 small farmers and fisherfolk and 130 small and medium enterprises.
The agency also allocated P1 billion as fuel discount/cash grants to 312,698 farmers and fisherfolk.
Drought over
Deputy Speaker Ralph Recto said it took a sitting President to concurrently serve as agriculture secretary for the DA “to finally reap a budget increase.”
According to Recto, eight big agricultural agencies deemed as government corporations will likewise be getting hefty increases in budgetary subsidy from the national government.
From P46.2 billion this year, subsidies to the National Food Authority (NFA), Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA), National Irrigation Administration (NIA), Philippine Rice Research Institute, Philippine Fisheries Development Authority, National Tobacco Administration, Philippine Coconut Authority, National Dairy Authority will go up to P62 billion, a 33-percent jump.
Of the eight, the NFA will post the biggest hike, a 71-percent jump from P7 billion to P12 billion. This will allow NFA to hike its buffer stock capacity from 9 days to 15 days.
Next is SRA, which has been earmarked a budget subsidy of P1 billion, up by 41 percent, from this year’s P712.2 million.
At the so-called “DA Proper,” the Office of the Secretary (OSEC) will see its budget surge from P61 billion to P90.2 billion, a 48 percent or P29-billion hike.
The OSEC will run the National Rice Program whose allocation will be doubled from P15.8 billion in 2022 to P30.5 billion in 2023.
Of this amount P19.5 billion will fund fertilizer support, which, according to Recto, “is a must at this time when fertilizer prices have gone through the roof.”
Under the DA plan, P5.2 billion will be plowed back to the corn sector, P5 billion to livestock, P2 billion to high value crops, and P5.2 billion to fisheries.
Other agencies slated to receive bigger funds are the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority, up 66 percent, or from P156 million to P259 million, and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), from P4.7 billion to P6.3 billion, a 35 percent boost.
The DA will also be ramping up infrastructure spending, allotting P13.1 billion for farm-to-market roads and P29.5 billion for irrigation.
Recto said he is supporting the budget increase in agriculture, “not because it is what the President has asked, but this is what the people want.”
The planned increase in the DA budget comes on the heels of a global study tagging the Philippines as the “most food insecure” in East and Southeast Asia and 146th out of 171 countries.
Recto said the agriculture budget should finance “a turnaround plan that will boost harvest and farmers’ incomes, and bring us to food security.”
Recalibrated
Upon the President’s assumption of leadership in the department, House Committee on Appropriation Vice Chairperson and Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin said DA has recalibrated its 2023 proposal based on Marcos’s directives of boosting local production, reducing production costs and raising income of farmer and fisherfolk, while ensuring availability of safe and nutritious food at all times.
“Given the higher market prices of rice, vegetables, livestock, and fisheries that we’re seeing due to current inflation levels, the President has emphasized the importance of stabilizing and increasing food production levels. To allow current levels to meet local demand, the DA intends to implement three key interventions,” she said.
“Firstly, production enhancement programs such as the National Rice Program, an intensified vegetable production program, the Integrated National Swine Production Initiatives for Recovery and Expansion program for livestock and poultry subsectors, and the Fisheries Production Program, under the BFAR,” she said.
Garin said the DA will also focus on strengthening the coconut industry through implementing the Coconut Industry Development Program.
According to Garin, the department will direct resources towards accelerating and optimizing our water resources through supporting irrigation development programs under the NIA.
“Aside from this emphasis on increasing food production levels, the DA also recognizes the importance of protecting the welfare of our farmers and fisherfolk. This is of immense value, considering that close to a third of our country’s labor force is employed in the agricultural, fisheries, and forestry sector,” she said.
To do this, Garin said various programs will be rolled out with the purpose of providing credit and financial assistance to eligible beneficiaries.
“These programs will provide the necessary social protection and safety nets with the end goal of reducing our farmers and fisherfolk’s vulnerability to different risks. On the end of credit assistance, the Agricultural Credit and Policy Council has a proposed budget of P2.75 billion. This allocation will be directed towards granting loans to more than 30,000 farmers and fisherfolk and 130 MSMEs [micro small and medium enterprises],” she added.
Given the directive of the President to expedite the completion of the farm-to-market road (FMR) network plan, Garin said the department will construct more FMR roads to connect more key production areas to markets.