SEN. Cynthia A. Villar said she would push for the enactment of a law that would increase the government’s spending for the livestock sector to further boost its productivity.
In a speech before the members of the National Federation of Hog Farmers Inc. (NFHFI), Villar said she would prioritize the passage of Senate Bill (SB) 1758, or the Philippine Livestock Industry Development Act, during the remainder of her first term as lawmaker and if she gets reelected next year.
“[SB 1758] will restructure, rationalize and integrate the government’s livestock industry support agencies into the Philippine Livestock Authority in order to strengthen its development, protection and regulatory functions, including the promotion of dairy and native animals, provide for a livestock development fund among others,” she said in her speech during the group’s event held recently.
Villar said the bill would “remedy the limited budget support for livestock” sector which has been averaging at only 2 percent of the yearly appropriations for the agriculture sector.
She noted that only the hogs and chicken subsectors have been growing constantly at about 3 percent annually due to private sector-driven investments.
Villar, who chairs the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food, said other livestock subsectors have been “mostly stagnant in terms of production volume and value” due to lack of investments especially from the government.
“I have instructed the Department of Agriculture [DA] that there should be sufficient budget for the livestock sector because it makes up a big bulk of the entire agricultural sector,” she said.
“For a subsector which has contributed 33 percent of the production of the entire agriculture sector, it is not fair for livestock to get a small percentage [2.7 percent] only of the DA’s budget,” she added.
Villar also said the DA “has not created a broad-based, organized, effort to develop the livestock industry” due to the limited mandate of the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI).
Under SB 1758, the senator said the BAI’s mandate would be expanded to oversee the development of the local livestock sector and help producers meet the growing demand of Filipinos for meat.
The bill proposes to provide a fund of P500 million for the reorganization and restructuring of the BAI upon the passage of the measure.
SB 1758 also mandates the DA to allocate at least 15 percent of its annual budget to the livestock sector. The Department of Budget and Management would be directed to set aside P2 billion for programs aimed at improving the sector.
Villar filed the bill on March 20 and has been pending before her committee.
“Rest assured that as the current chairperson of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food, I am doing my best to give the agriculture sector in general and the livestock, and the hog subsector in particular, all the legislative and practical support that I can,” she told the NHFHI.
Data from the PSA showed that production in the livestock subsector grew by 2.15 percent and accounted for 18.89 percent of the total agricultural output in the third quarter.
Except for carabao, all components of the subsector registered output increments. Hog production increased by 2.55 percent. The subsector grossed P74.7 billion, or 8.81 percent, more than the previous year’s level.
Image credits: Bloomberg