“We Must Triple The Budget For Agriculture” – William Dar. “We Must Put A Servant Leader As Next Secretary Of Agriculture” – Frank A Hilario, Agriculturist & Servant Blogger

Dr Henry Lim, President of the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce, says Secretary of Agriculture William Dar has been doing a good job – but hampered by budgetary constraints.

My wife Ampy Medina Reynoso was listening Sunday, 15 May 2022, to Dr Lim being interviewed over SuperRadyo DZBB. She says Dr Lim mentioned the much bigger shares than PH derived from each country’s Gross Domestic Product and allocated to Agriculture in Thailand and Vietnam, which help explain those countries’ huger successes in that field.

In the 11 May webinar “Spiraling Commodity Prices: Game Plan To Survive Shocks” sponsored by the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines, ANN says (Author Not Named, 12 May 2022, DA.gov.ph) that Mr Dar said:

“Triple the budget to at least P250 B a year. Absent that, I cannot propose better solutions.”

ANN says Mr Dar “relayed [that] as his foremost policy recommendation.” In short (see above image): “Pour money on Agriculture.” Also:

To aid the succeeding administration in its agricultural decisions, the Department, with Secretary Dar at the helm, created the National Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization and Industrialization Plan (NAFMIP) – a strategic guidebook for agricultural development [for] 2021-2030.

Mr Dar says about the NAFMIP:

It establishes and words our vision for the next ten years, assuming hefty budgetary prioritization of the sector as a national policy. And we adamantly say, this prioritization must come to pass, else, the food crisis could threaten national security.

Where will the P250 B budget go? “Sufficient to implement a long-term vision of commodity industry development, significant agricultural infrastructure development including our agri-industrial business corridors, among others…”

Personally, along with the DA’s historical emphasis on Chemical Agriculture (CA), I see a concern that the DA has not had the budget to tackle with. I say that with a big budget like that, the Philippines can now vigorously pursue a parallel program of Organic Agriculture (OA), as OA will:

1.     Hugely reduce fertilizer expenses. The DA can even help farmers prepare their own organic fertilizer concoctions.

(Additional note: If farmers follow my personal formula, which I call “Rotavator Organic WEALth,” the cost of fertilization will go down to almost zero – for more on WEALth, see my essay, “For A Happier & Healthier Habitat Philippines! Triple A For Agriculture,” 16 February 2022, Towards A New Eden, Blogspot.com.)

2.     Farmers will grow healthy foods once they discontinue spraying chemicals. Weedicides, insecticides and fungicides are all verboten in the practice of OA. Why because the organic fertilizers will ensure that the crops will grow healthy and as a consequence are not attractive to pests and/or disease organisms.

3.     Farmers will earn much, much more than they do today because of much, much lesser fertilizer expenses, no chemicals to buy & spray – and consumers will love their healthy farm produce.

As I have been writing in the last 22 years, Mr Dar is a Servant Leader – we need him as the next Secretary of Agriculture!@517