Agribusiness group urged gov’t to give bigger budget for DA

Department of Agriculture (DA) logo with rice and some high-value crops. INQUIRER FILES

The Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc. (Pcafi) has urged the government to dedicate more funds to boosting local food production amid global supply woes and food shocks.

Pcafi president Danilo Fausto said that because the country relies heavily on imports to meet its food requirements, the agriculture sector is extra vulnerable to global events – such as the protracted Russia-Ukraine war and geopolitical conflicts in the Asean region – that affect the supply and cost of food.

More funds should therefore be allotted for programs to increase local output, the agribusiness group stressed.

However, Fausto said the indicative budget of the Department of Agriculture (DA) amounting to P178.273 billion was just a small fraction of the P5.768-trillion national budget for next year.

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The combined budget of the DA and Department of Agrarian Reform totaling P221.7 billion represents only 3.8 percent of next year’s allotment, the group noted.

“What further aggravated the situation is having the agriculture budget to be rice-centric as evidenced by the great disparity in the allocation of the budget for 2024, where rice is getting 60 percent of the total agriculture budget while contributing only 23 percent of the total agriculture output,” Fausto said in his speech during Pcafi’s 25th anniversary held in San Juan City.

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The agribusiness leader said the government should also increase the proposed spending for other sub-sectors.

“On the other hand, high-value crops which contribute 33.78 percent of the total agriculture output, got a measly 2.6 percent of the total agriculture budget and the livestock sector received 3.1 percent of the budget while contributing 30 percent to the agriculture output,” Fausto also said. INQ