The Department of Agriculture (DA) is aiming to secure a mere two-percent increase in its budget for next year to further strengthen the country’s long-term food security, but this could still be reduced given the country’s tighter fiscal space.

Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel said the DA is hoping to secure around ₱220 billion in the 2027 national budget, which has been proposed at a record ₱7.2 trillion.

The proposed DA budget for next year is around ₱4.3 billion higher than its current budget of ₱215.7 billion under this year’s ₱6.79-trillion national outlay.

However, Tiu Laurel said there is a chance that the DA’s proposed budget may eventually be cut by more than a quarter because of the ceiling set by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

“We requested ₱220 billion, that’s our wish, but we were given a ceiling of just around ₱160 billion. So it would depend,” the DA chief told reporters last week.

Under its National Budget Memorandum No. 150 dated June 25, the DBM said the spending plan for 2027 is confronted by a “very narrow fiscal space,” constrained by automatic appropriations such as the national tax allotment (NTA) for local government units (LGUs), interest payments (IPs), newly enacted laws, and recurrent mandatory expenditures.

The country’s macroeconomic fundamentals are further strained by the impact of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, compounded by the lingering effects of the multibillion-peso flood-control corruption scandal last year.

As a result, Tiu Laurel said the DBM has set a budget ceiling of around ₱16 billion for the DA’s farm-to-market road (FMR) program, down by half from its proposal of between ₱32 billion and ₱33 billion.

He added that the ₱20-billion Animal Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (AnCEF), which was supposed to be separate from the agency’s allocated funding, has since been integrated into its proposed budget.

“So that ended up taking part of our budget that could have gone to other items. We were hoping that it would be on top of our existing allocation,” said Tiu Laurel.

Whether the DA’s budget next year ends up at around ₱160 billion or ₱220 billion, Tiu Laurel said it remains far below what should be the annual spending plan for the agriculture sector.

To help accelerate the country’s path toward food security, the DA chief said the sector should receive a minimum of ₱500 billion per year for at least five years to strengthen farm productivity.

The half-a-trillion-peso annual budget, which would span two administrations, is seen as a way to reverse years of underinvestment and address persistent structural weaknesses in local agriculture.

“But it’s all about the fiscal space and how much money we have. So we will work with what we have and make the most of it,” Tiu Laurel said.