The 71-percent increase in the Department of Agriculture’s budget in 2009 to P48 billion, from P28 billion in 2008, did not result in any growth in the agriculture sector.
There was also no growth in 2010, just a 2 percent growth in 2011 and then another 2 percent growth as of the end of the third quarter of this year.
This is despite the increase in the DA’s budget to P53 billion in 2012, with the 2013 budget now expected to reach as much as P73 billion, for DA and its attached corporations.
Activating the Agriculture Fisheries Councils (AFCs) may well be the key to boosting agricultural growth and making the most of the increase in the DA budget.
Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala, however, should still be commended for the 2 percent growth in 2011 and 2012. To accelerate that growth, DA will need a lot of help such as greater involvement in the AFC.
The San Roque, Northern Samar, Municipal Agriculture Fisheries Council (MAFC) case is instructive.
Last November 13, Mayor Andre Avalon phoned “Maunlad na Agricukultura” radio program host Francis Cansino. He asked how his municipality could benefit from the increased DA budget for 2013.
He listened that morning to the weekly Alyansa Agricukultura report concerning several mayors who are not using the DA budget effectively because they were not serious about agricultural development.
Avalon said he was not one of them. In fact, agriculture is his top priority.
However, his municipality’s agricultural growth has been constrained by a severe lack of agricultural assistance.
Avalon said Secretary Alcala was committed, hard-working and accessible. But something is lacking in the DA structure.
For example, despite the increase in the DA’s budget, Avalon has been getting the same DA assistance every year since 2009: a multipurpose dryer worth approximately P500,000.
It is useful, but the farmers can do without it. The dryers do save the farmers the trouble of drying their palay on paved roads, but the farmers can still make do with what they have.
According to Avalon, the P500,000 can instead be used to buy hand tractors for land preparation.
These tractors can be shared by several farmers and are guaranteed to bring about more benefits.
Avalon said: “Palay production can be increased from 60 to 100 cavans a hectare because of the much improved land preparation.”
Avalon credits agricultural development insights such as these to San Roque’s Municipal Agriculture Fisheries Council (MAFC).
This MAFC has 14 Barangay Agriculture Fisheries Councils (BAFCs) that interested farmers can join.
The BAFC private sector chiefs, who compose the MAFC, then meet with Avalon to identify and resolve agricultural issues.
When Avalon changed the MAFC meeting schedule from quarterly to monthly, significant improvements were achieved.
“If the DA gives the MAFC more importance, the DA budget will be more wisely and effectively used. Monitoring the budget will also be better because the MAFC recommendations, not those from the ‘top down,’ will be followed,” Avalon said.
Last November 12, NAFC Executive Director Ariel Cayanan achieved a breakthrough.
In a Region 10 DA-DILG-LGU meeting in Cagayan, the DILG and the LGUs ordered that the AFC representatives at the regional, provincial and municipal levels become permanent members of the LGU Local Development Councils (LDCs).
This supports Secretary Alcala’s direction of strengthening AFCs.
The result is that not only the DA budget, but also the other LGU agriculture-related budgets, will be used to meet what the AFCs identify as their “real needs.”
Spending and monitoring the agriculture budget through the Public-Private Partnership AFCs are sorely needed to boost Philippine agricultural development.
(The author is chairman of Agriwatch, former Secretary for Presidential Flagship Programs and Projects, and former Undersecretary for Agriculture, and Trade and Industry. For inquiries and suggestions, e-mail agriwatch_phil@yahoo.com or telefax 8522112.)