House opposition member, group seek more funds for agri office

A MEMBER of the House opposition bloc and a non-government organization are proposing to increase funds allotted for the Department of Agriculture (DA) to make the country self-sufficient in supplying grains to its people.

Opposition lawmaker Zambales Representative Mitos Magsaysay said that supporting the needs of the agricultural sector would be a "sound investment" since the country has "very capable farmers and agriculture experts that will help the steer the industry into new heights."

"The government needs to first understand the importance of the industry and commit to it by providing ample budget to the Department of Agriculture so that reforms and developments may be instituted," she said, adding the DA needs at least P50 to P60 billion annually to support its various development programs throughout the country.

Magsaysay's calls were supported by the Rice Watch and Action Network (R1).

However, such budget increases should include "judiciously looking at the agriculture programs that will give the farmers maximum benefits and sustain their productivity," the group said in a statement.

"Bearing in mind the increase in budget accorded to the agriculture sector for the past years and the extent of which these were allegedly squandered by the previous administration, we believe Congress needs to be more cautious in putting pesos and centavos to budget items that are easily identified as the key to agriculture development,” Jessica Reyes-Cantos, R1 Lead Convenor, said in a statement.

The Agriculture department will receive P61.7 billion under the proposed national budget for 2012.

Some P4 billion of the amount will be allotted to the National Food Authority, which the group said should be increased to P14 Billion.

The increased amounts should be used to buy five percent of local palay production, the group said, adding that an additional P1 billion should be used to improve the NFA's facilities.

The remaining budget should be allotted to achieve a 10 percent procurement level will come from the liquidation of NFA’s current rice stocks.

Magsaysay said it is saddening that the Philippines, an agricultural country, has resorted to importing grains from its Asian neighbors for the past years.

“They are already miles ahead of us in terms of agricultural development,” she stressed.

Magsaysay made this remark after the consistent high prices of grain in the world market due to low supply fears attributed to bad harvests.

The lawmaker said if we had ample supply of grain to feed Filipinos, the country would not be affected by any global price increases or inflation on a global scale. If the agriculture sector would reach its full potential, the Philippines could well be exporting grain instead of importing them.

"If we scrimp on agriculture, what will be the use of all the studies and innovations the country is embarking on? With insufficient funds, even to irrigate the lands in the country, how will we have good harvest?" she pointed out.

Meanwhile, R1 proposed to cut the irrigation budget to P20 Billion until such time that an audit of the last three years (2009-2011) in irrigation budget is made available.

"Cuts should be made mostly in the Locally Funded Projects as foreign assisted projects were better implemented based on assessment studies due to stricter project monitoring," the non-government organization said in its position paper submitted to the House Committee on Appropriations and to Senate Committee on Finance.

To further improve the country's rice self-sufficiency, the group said the original DA budget proposal for Rice Program be maintained at P10 billion, if not increased "but do some realignments to give higher budget for extension services for farming systems (i.e. Palayamanan, Sustainable Agriculture, climate resilient technologies, etc)."

Besides judiciously increasing DA allotments, the group is asking the government to also increase the insurance coverage of Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC) to at least 10 percent of crop production, raise the budget for feedstock laboratory to P100 million and diagnostic services to P100 million, create a mechanism for increased private, civil society monitoring, audit, and assessment of major agriculture programs, and increase seed varieties for participatory seed selection because diversification of genetic materials should include farmers’ varieties.

These form part of the Alternative Budget Initiative (ABI) proposals by Social Watch Philippines and submitted to Congress during the deliberation of the 2012 budget. (Kathrina Alvarez/Sunnex)