The Department of Agriculture (DA) expects to receive a budget of only P72 billion for 2022. This is only slightly higher than the actual budget it was supposed to receive in 2021 and is way lower compared with the P250 billion allocation the agency proposed for next year.
During the food and sustainability forum organized by the Economic Journalist Association of the Philippines (EJAP) and Aboitiz Group, Agriculture Secretary William Dar said that of the DA’s P250-billion proposed budget for next year, the agency may only actually be granted P72 billion, or P1 billion higher than the P71 billion allocation this year.
Dar also said such a budget level may not be enough to boost the country’s agricultural production, which has been on a decline for the past three quarters “We are still hoping that the budget will increase in a big way,” Dar said. “We need a higher budget to increase our output.”
As usual, for next year, the bulk of DA's budget will be used to boost production in rice, corn, high-value crops, poultry, livestock, and fisheries. At the same time, the DA must also allocate funds to ease the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the lingering African Swine Fever (ASF) outbreak to agriculture stakeholders, especially the small farmers and fishermen.
Back in 2019, the DA had set a '2-3-4' strategy for the agriculture sector, which basically means a total agricultural growth target of 2 percent in 2020, 3 percent in 2021, and 4 percent in 2022.
However, in 2020, the sector declined by 1.2 percent, while things are not looking good either for 2021. From April to June of this year, agricultural output fell by 1.5 percent, coming from a mere growth of 0.5 percent during the same period last year.
Nevertheless, Dar assured that efforts are in full force to help the livestock sector, which heavily dragged the performance of the country’s agriculture sector during the first half of this year.
"Rest assured that we will continuously and vigorously implement the Bantay ASF sa Barangay and its twin hog repopulation program, in partnership with the local government units, hog raisers' groups, and the private sector to revive the country's swine industry," Dar said in an earlier report.
“Expectedly, the livestock sub-sector, particularly the swine industry, has pulled down our composite agri-fishery performance, due to ASF, whose incidence is already waning," he added.