After years of funding drought, the Department of Agriculture (DA) will finally get it’s much-awaited and -deserved budget hike—set to be at P102.15 billion next year—under the Marcos administration, Deputy Speaker and Batangas 6th District Rep. Ralph Recto said on Sunday, Aug. 28.

The veteran lawmaker added that it took a sitting president concurrently serving as Agriculture chief for the agency “to finally reap a budget increase,” referring to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

“You can say that this is the beginning of the end of a funding drought,” Recto said, adding the increase should be supported because “to beat hunger, a country should not starve its farming sector of funds.”

With Marcos as its chief, the DA will see its budget shoot up by 44 percent, from P71 billion this year to P102.15 billion next year.

Recto expressed support for the budget increase in agriculture since “this is what the people want.”

“Maraming kulang. Mula asukal, isda, sibuyas, pati bigas (A lot is lacking. From sugar, fish, onions, and even rice). Our food import bill is rising. The steep rise in the cost of production inputs, from fertilizer to fuel, has lowered production while increasing food prices,” the Batangas lawmaker said.

The increase in the 2023 DA budget should finance “a turnaround plan” for the country’s agricultural sector and boost harvest, as well as farmers’ incomes.

Recto also said the budget hike should “bring us to food security.”

READ: Recto identifies biggest problem with the national budget

The planned increase in the DA budget came on the heels of a global study that tagged the Philippines as the most food insecure in East and Southeast Asia and 146th out of 171 countries.

He said eight agricultural agencies working as government corporations will get their fundings boosted.

From P46.2 billion this year, subsidies to the National Food Authority (NFA), Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA), National Irrigation Administration (NIA), Philippine Rice Research Institute (PRRI), Philippine Fisheries Development Authority (PFDA), National Tobacco Administration (NTA), Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA), and National Dairy Authority (NDA) will go up to P62 billion, representing a 33 percent bump.

The NFA is poised to get the biggest hike—from P7 billion to P12 billion—which will allow it to hike its buffer stock capacity from 9 days to 15 days.

Next to NFA is the SRA, which has been earmarked a budget subsidy of P1 billion, up by 41 percent, from this year’s P712.2 million.

Marcos’ Office of the Secretary (OSEC) will also see its budget rise from P61 billion to P90.2 billion, a 48 percent or P29-billion hike.

The OSEC will have authority over the National Rice Program, whose own allocation will be up from P15.8 billion in 2022 to P30.5 billion in 2023.

Of this amount, P19.5 billion will fund fertilizer support, which, according to Recto, “is a must at this time when fertilizer prices have gone through the roof.”

The Marcos administration’s agricultural plan will also include giving P5.2 billion to the corn sector, P5 billion to livestock, P2 billion to high-value crops, and P5.2 to fisheries.