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Saturday, April 05, 2008
Arroyo bares P48.7 billion agri aid
CLARK SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONE -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo unveiled Friday a P48.7 billion-agriculture assistance package aimed at ensuring abundant, accessible, and affordable food supply in the country.
Arroyo, during the Food Summit at the Fontana Convention Center, also expressed openness to proposals to create a new position for a deputy ombudsman on agriculture to help handle and resolve industry-related irregularities.
Arroyo Watch: Sun.Star blog on President Arroyo
In addressing the summit, the President said the multibillion-peso package had been clustered into six areas they had dubbed as Fields, which stands for fertilizer, irrigation, extension and education, loans and insurance, dryers and other post harvest facilities, and seeds.
"We must work harder to grow and breed what we need," Arroyo stressed.
Fertilizer
Arroyo said on the aspect of fertilizer, P500 million had been set aside for the development and production of organic fertilizers like Bio-N.
She underscored the need to use organic fertilizers following an increase in the prices of urea fertilizer by about 200 percent.
The fertilizer fund, she added, would be sourced from the Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund.
The President also instructed the Department of Agriculture (DA) to "utilize proven technologies like Bio-N" to increase the harvests of rice farmers in the forthcoming wet season.
Irrigation, infrastructure
On irrigation and infrastructure, the President said P6 billion would be spent by the government on infrastructure.
These include farm to market roads, roll on-roll off ferry ports and non-frill airports for agricultural cargo and another P6 billion for the rehabilitation of existing irrigation systems and the construction of "small" irrigation facilities.
She ordered the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) to work on the completion of the rehabilitation of the irrigation systems by 2010.
Extension, education
The administration has allocated a total of P5 billion on extension and education.
Of the said amount, P2 billion allocated in research and development, P1 billion in capability building, P1 billion in trainers and technicians, and P1 billion in the agricultural and fisheries education system.
"We recognize the importance of continuous training of farmers and fisherfolk on new technology. I instruct the DA to continuously implement programs and interventions with close cooperation from the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the local government units (LGUs) as well as the Department of Science and Technology (DOST)," Arroyo said.
Loans
On the loans aspect, the President said P15 billion is available to the farmers through the different government financial institutions.
She added that this is on top of an earlier P5 billion credit line that was made available by the Land Bank of the Philippines.
"I direct Secretary (Arthur) Yap to study how to maximize bank compliance to the agri-agra law. For farmers to have access to all this formal credit, I ask Congress to enact a law making farm land acceptable as loan collateral," said Arroyo.
Dryers
Arroyo also said an initial P2 billion has been allocated for dryers and other post-harvest facilities.
She said this does not include a US$300 million fund made available by Korea to LGUs to improve the existing post harvest facilities.
She directed Yap to establish appropriate integrated processing and trading centers in collaboration with the private sector, like the cold chain system and rice and corn processing centers.
Seeds
On the seeds aspect, the President said the government requires at least P2.7 billion to sustain funding for hybrid seeds and another P6.5 billion for certified seeds, which could be harvested from 2009 to 2010.
She said about 600,000 hectares of land all over the country is targeted for certified seeds and another 900,000 hectares for hybrid seeds.
The support for seed growers, said Arroyo, is important and the success of the seeds program would "enable rained-lowland areas presently planted to good seeds to migrate to certified rice seeds and those planted to certified seeds, to migrate to hybrid seeds."
"In all these programs, we must be transparent. We will work to fix the corruption that still plagues our nation, including in the agri-business sector. We especially prohibit officials from dealing with fertilizer brokers and agents. They can only deal with official distributors in the regions and provinces," she said.
Rising prices
Arroyo said aside from these spending, the government has also drawn up measures to cushion the rising prices of commodities particularly rice in the world market.
"The DA, the National Food Authority (NFA), and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) for instance are strictly monitor rice deliveries and investigate cases of hoarding, price manipulation and other illegal activities," she said.
The Arroyo government is now holding officials accountable and if they are found to be corrupt and conniving with unscrupulous traders, "we are letting the chips fall where they may as investigations are concluded and friend and foe alike and brought to account for their actions."
The Chief Executive said another measure is the cancellation of the existing licenses of rice traders, retailers and bodegas by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and NFA, which despite complaints had to be done.
Arroyo expressed openness to the proposal of House committee on agriculture chairman and Palawan Representative Baham Mitra to create a post for a deputy ombudsman for agriculture.
"The DA cannot watch over all transactions. According to him (Mitra), Republic Act (RA) 6670 gives power to appoint more Deputy Ombudsmen. In 1990 such deputy was appointed for the military. Considering the fact that farm spending may now be bigger than defense spending, a Deputy Ombudsman may be needed in agriculture," she said.
The President assured that the appointment of a Deputy Ombudsman would only be done pursuant to "our transparency initiative. It will also ensure that money is spent wisely." (JMR/Sunnex)For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro. (April 5, 2008 issue)
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