THE Department of Agriculture (DA) has allotted P454 million for Cebu’s agricultural sector in 2021.
Agriculture Secretary William Dar made the announcement during the launching of the Cash and Food Subsidy for Marginal Farmers and Fisherfolk (CFSMFF) program on Dec. 7, 2020 in Pinamungajan, Cebu.
In a statement, Dar expressed DA’s commitment to further support initiatives to boost the agricultural output in the province.
Of the P454 million, P363 million has been allocated for the construction of farm-to-market (FTM) roads in Cebu broken down as follows: a 2-kilometer road for District 1 (P25 million), 3-km road for District 2 (P37.5 million), 6.4-km road for District 3 (P78.5 million), 2-km road for District 4 (P24.5 million), 7-km road for District 5 (P85.5 million), 2-km road for District 6 (P25 million), 3-km road for District 7 (P37 million), a 2-km road for Cebu City North (P25 million) and another 2-km road for Cebu City South (P25 million).
DA 7 Planning Division Chief Antonio Du told SunStar Cebu the FTM roads play a crucial part in bringing the farmers’ produce to the consumers.
“It’s one of the problems of our farmers from mountain barangays. It’s hard to bring down their harvest because of the uneven roads. This even causes some crops to decay due to delays in transport. It also causes prices to go up since farmers need to get back their losses,” Du said.
High-value crops
Next to FTMs, the second biggest allocation (P31 million) is for the planting of high-value vegetables, fruits, root crops and industrial crops like cacao and coffee at P31 million.
Cebu’s corn program got the third biggest allocation at P24.8 million as the province has been identified by the Philippine Statistics Authority in 2018 as the top corn-producing province with 54.63 percent contribution in the total production of Central Visayas.
The development of Cebu’s rice program was also given a budget of P19.4 million, livestock at P13.4 million and lastly, organic agriculture at P2.3 million.
Next year’s agriculture budget for Cebu is P23 million higher than the P431 million allotted for this year. (JOB with PR)