DA eyes more than double budget in 2025
By TED CORDERO, GMA Integrated News Published April 18, 2024 3:50pm The Department of Agriculture (DA) is seeking a 2025 budget that is more than double its current appropriation to further pursue its goal to modernize the country’s farm and fisheries sectors. In a news release on Thursday, the DA said it is finalizing a […]
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By TED CORDERO, GMA Integrated News
The Department of Agriculture (DA) is seeking a 2025 budget that is more than double its current appropriation to further pursue its goal to modernize the country’s farm and fisheries sectors.
In a news release on Thursday, the DA said it is finalizing a proposal to substantially increase its budget for 2025 to P513.81 billion from its current budget of P208.58 billion.
At a consultative meeting with private sector stakeholders, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said that while the budget proposal is still a work in progress, it clearly shows the direction where we are headed.”
The DA said Tiu Laurel is seeking the private sector’s support for the budget that would fund the construction of more farm infrastructures, including irrigation and post-harvest facilities.
The Agriculture chief has lamented the severe lack of investments in agriculture for almost four decades, which led to the declining contribution of agriculture to the gross domestic product (GDP).
As a result, Tiu Laurel said millions of Filipinos dependent on the sector have remained poor.
He earlier estimated that over the next few years, P93 billion is needed for post-harvest facilities to reduce rice and corn wastage while around P1.2 trillion would be required to irrigate an additional 1.2 million hectares to boost rice production and reduce importation.
Under the preliminary expenditure numbers for 2025, bulk of the budget increase will go to DA attached corporations including the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), National Food Authority (NFA), Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA), Philippine Fisheries Development Authority (PFDA) and the National Dairy Authority (NDA).
The proposed combined budget for the eight DA attached corporations is P287.98 billion, more than triple their total budget of P94.30 billion for 2024.
For the DA itself, the envisioned budget for 2025 is nearly double at P225.83 billion compared to P114.28 billion this year to allow various bureaus cope with the need to modernize the fisheries and farm sectors as well as address food safety and anti-smuggling efforts.
The rice sub-sector will continue to account for the lion’s share of the budget proposal, with an allocation of P294.21 billion, or 57% of the total outlay for next year.
Next is the fisheries sub-sector that will get P50.6 billion while locally-funded projects will be allotted P45.48 billion.
Other sub-sectors and their budgets are cross-cutting programs, P34.5 billion; high value crops, P32 billion; livestock, P28.56 billion; foreign-assisted, P13.77 billion; corn, P11.3 billion; and credit program, P3.38 billion.—RF, GMA Integrated News
