The Department of Agriculture (DA) is seeking additional funding from foreign partners to address critical issues faced by the agriculture sector, such as the lack of infrastructure.

Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel, Jr. stated that the department is seeking funding from official development partners to address the challenges facing the agriculture sector.

The DA mentioned that the "Build Better More" initiative for developing farm-to-market roads has been discussed with the French Government. This proposal aims to enhance agricultural production sites, fisheries, coastal landing points, and post-harvest facilities to markets and major highways which would address infrastructure gaps.

According to the DA chief, the project would also facilitate trade to ensure agricultural products have a smooth and efficient movement and value chain for food and agricultural commodities.

This initiative stemmed from the DA’s call to develop the country’s limited resources in seaports, roads, bridges, and irrigation, which would benefit farmers and fishermen.

“The DA is also proposing a project under the World Bank’s Program for Results, or P4R, provide incremental funding to accelerate DA’s initiatives and enhance the impact of its programs, and emphasize achieving sustainable outcomes and building institutional capacity,” Tiu Laurel added.

He emphasized that the World Bank’s P4R utilizes government systems and procedures rather than the bank to expedite processes and aim for tangible results.

“P4R project is part of the World Bank’s strategy to expand the impact of development interventions through a results-oriented approach,” the agriculture chief elaborated.

Furthermore, the Tiu Laurel underscored the DA’s collaboration with the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) for the Philippine solar-powered irrigation project that would develop 8,000 units nationwide to provide farms with accessible irrigation, thus boosting farm yields.

Aside from this, the DA is expanding the cold chain storage network to mitigate crop overproduction and its losses.

“In addition, we will be building food terminals along with cold storage facilities that will also be strategically established regionally. These facilities are very crucial to address the food logistical cold chain issues,” he added.