The budget of the Department of Agriculture (DA) is not enough and yet it is not spending all of what the lawmakers have approved for the year! So, why should it be Much Bigger?!
Meanwhile, Filipino farmers do what they can. Angela Yang’s “Five Ways Pinoy Farmers Are Beating Climate Change[1]” (23 May 2019, Vera Files) tells us: “multi-layer cropping, native pig farming, mulching, school gardens, and healthy feeding program” (of school).
Farmers need to do much more! Ms Angela mixes her aggie terms, but I thank her because she bolsters the idea that the DA needs a much, much bigger budget because Pinoy farmers need much more help!
Here comes former Economic Planning Secretary Cielito F Habito in his Inquirer column for 28 September 2021, “Funding Agriculture Right[2]” (Inquirer.net) saying:
Why has the Department of Agriculture (DA) perennially received much less than it asks from… Congress? Fellow Inquirer columnist Ernie Ordoñez recently noted that in 2020 and 2021, the DA got only 22 and 30 percent, respectively, of what it originally requested, and got even less in 2022. What gives? Don’t the economic managers believe in the importance of agriculture to our economy?
(farmer image from Vera Files)
Mr Habito answers his own question, saying:
My own informed guess is that they don’t see practical sense in dramatically raising the DA budget when it has perennially failed to demonstrate the absorptive capacity to utilize its budget effectively and efficiently.
The DA has perennially failed to spend its own proposed budget! Typically only 60%, Mr Habito says:
Still, I’d argue that agriculture needs a far bigger budget than what it has been getting. (Fellow Inquirer columnist Ernie) Ordoñez points out that our agriculture budget’s 2 percent share in the total budget pales in comparison to Thailand’s 3.5 percent and Vietnam’s 5.5 percent.
I am glad Mr Habito compares PH’s aggie’s measly budget (2% of total PH budget) to that of Vietnam (5.5%) and Thailand (3.5%) – really, our own DA has to spend billions pesos more for our farmers!
I now want to recommend to Secretary of Agriculture William Dar projects for the DA budget, all additional to what they have:
Budget for DA Knowledge Program (New):P3 Billion – build 1000 Aggie Internet Centers @P3 M eachP1.517 Billion – create National Knowledge Bank of AgricultureP1.05 Billion – 30,000 laptops @P35,000 for 1,000 coops @30 pc
As of today, the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI), an agency of the DA, trains farmers when it can where it can, not much & not many more. What happens to the rest of the 5 million farmers?
The Internet-based Knowledge Bank I am proposing should take care of all data & information needs of farmers at any time during any day or night anywhere. The ATI can only train so many thousands, and then again on certain technologies – what about obstacles, options & opportunities?
The DA must be training thousands of farmers anytime – even as millions of them must be able to refer to a farmer-friendly Knowledge Bank anytime & anywhere!@517
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