NextGen Day

To handle surmounting food and agriculture worldwide difficulties onto the “new world,” the Department of Agriculture (DA) is asking for an additional PHP12 billion on top of the projected PHP95 billion budget for 2022.

“We are entering a ‘New Globe,’ where every country in the world is dealing with enormous issues as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic on a global scale. The lingering and mutating Covid-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic, rising gasoline, fertilizer, and feed prices, climate change, population dynamics, urbanization, and aging farmers, and preventing the entry of transboundary animal and plant diseases are among them, according to Agriculture Secretary William Dar in a statement released on Thursday.

“These worldwide difficulties will have a negative influence on food production, distribution, and consumption in the coming year and beyond.” As a result, there is a perceived need for more budgetary support in the Philippines and at the Department of Agriculture,” he noted.

Dar said the country needs a “lifeline” to maintain productivity and address food security demands in a letter to Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III and House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco.

“We feel the government must act quickly to assist our farmers in addressing these global and local concerns,” he said.

The DA’s planned PHP12-billion increase includes PHP8.9 billion for fertilizer subsidies, PHP2 billion for corn program expansion, and PHP1.1 billion for urban agriculture.

“The rise in inorganic fertilizer prices as a result of dwindling worldwide availability has proven concerning. “The majority of fertilizer supplies has been stocked up by big countries and producers to satisfy their local requirements for crop development and food security,” Dar said.

“Other risks such as rising energy prices, rising raw material prices for feeds, and growing transportation costs due to backlogs in logistics transport services are contributing to the pandemic’s lingering effect, which is still harming the global supply chain,” he added.

“The ‘OneDA family’ will strongly encourage local government units and the private sector to invest in agriculture and fishery infrastructure and livelihood projects, particularly in palay procurement, provision of drying, storage, and rice milling facilities, farmers’ trading and consolidation centers, cold storage facilities, and logistics like reefer and food delivery vans,” Dar said.

Under the direction of DA undersecretary for fisheries and agri-industrialization Cheryl Marie Natividad Caballero, he said the DA will also attract more foreign direct investments by tasking its marketing and international relations teams to package big-ticket investment projects.

Meanwhile, Dar stated that the DA’s Climate Resilient Agriculture Office will continue to work to alleviate the effects of climate change, particularly through the development of more “AMIA” communities in vulnerable areas.

AMIA stands for Agriculture Mitigation and Adaptation Initiative. To date, the DA has established 116 AMIA communities across the country.

The DA is also looking into improving research and development, farm-to-market roads, postharvest facilities (including cold-chain), small irrigation systems (rainwater catchment basin), small-scale irrigation, small-scale irrigation systems (rainwater catchment basin), small-scale irrigation systems (rainwater catchment basin), small-scale irrigation systems (rainwater catchment basin), small-scale irrigation systems (rainwater catchment basin), small-scale irrigation systems (rainwater catchment basin), small-scale irrigation systems

Dar stated that more resources should be allocated to crops where the Philippines has a comparative advantage, leading in increased exports, as well as encouraging Filipino farmers, fishermen, and businesses to be more cost-effective and quality-conscious on a global scale.

He added that the ‘OneDA family’ will continue to work with farmers’ cooperatives and associations (FCAs), local governments, and the corporate sector, including foreign investors, to promote farm consolidation and clustering.

Finally, because local government units (LGUs) will receive more funding beginning January 2022 as a result of the Supreme Court’s “Mandanas-Garcia ruling,” Dar said the DA will work with LGUs to build agri-fishery infrastructure and pursue production, processing, and marketing projects, including the implementation of Province-led Agriculture and Fisheries Extension Systems (PAFES).

“Rest assured that the ‘OneDA family’ will continue to prioritize local production by leveraging modern science and technology to boost the productivity and incomes of our farmers, fisherfolk, and agripreneurs, young and old,” he stated.

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