P5.9B for pump-priming in agriculture
By Amy R. Remo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:53:00 02/01/2008
Filed Under: Agriculture, Macro Economics
MANILA, Philippines -- Economic officials have prepared a standby package to pump-prime the economy and counter the effects of a possible US recession, Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said Thursday.
He added that the Department of Agriculture would “immediately frontload” as much as P5.9 billion from its 2008 appropriated budget to ensure sustained growth in agriculture sector.
Yap said he expected the department to receive P1.5 billion in cash next week and the remainder to be released by the national government earlier than the usual.
The pump-priming package -- the Philippine equivalent of the “stimulus package” being proposed in the United States -- may be released in the first quarter of the year, Yap said.
The full amount has not yet been decided, he said.
“This is meant as a cautionary measure,” Yap said. “For the past 30 years, history has shown us that, when the US economy is down, the Philippine economy usually follows.”
For this year, the national government has allocated to the Department of Agriculture a budget of P29.161 billion.
The amount to be “frontloaded” will be “immediately used for input materials and to fund irrigation, post-harvest programs and farm-to-market road projects to jumpstart the department’s programs early in the year and ensure growths,” Yap said.
In 2007, the agriculture sector grew 4.68 percent, within the target range of 4.5-5.0 percent, accelerating from a 2006 pace of 3.88 percent despite a prolonged dry spell early in the year.
For 2008, Yap said, the department expects to achieve a similar full-year growth of 4.5-5.0 percent “to help propel GDP [gross domestic product] growth to as much as seven percent.”
He added that to sustain this growth the department would focus on rice, municipal fisheries, aquaculture, and poultry and livestock.
The government will continue to invest in the agriculture sector, Yap said, particularly in irrigation and other related infrastructure.
“A P1 investment in agriculture has an impact of P2.22 to the country’s GDP,” he said.
Earlier, Yap called for increased investments and funding for agriculture, saying that only five percent of all loans released by banks in 2006 went to the farm sector. Edited by INQUIRER.net
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