The Department of Agriculture is finalizing a proposal that will substantially increase its budget for 2025 to pursue its goal of modernizing the farm and fisheries sectors to produce more food, ensure food security, and increase incomes of farmers and fishermen.
In a consultative meeting with private agricultural groups, the DA presented a proposal that would more than double its expenditure plan for next year to P513.81 billion (B) from the current budget of P208.58B.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel, Jr. told participants to the consultative meeting that the budget proposal “is still a work in progress but clearly shows the direction where we are headed.” He sought the private sector’s support for the budget that is envisioned to build more farm infrastructures, including irrigation and postharvest facilities.
The agri chief has often expounded on the severe lack of investments in agriculture for almost four decades, which led to the declining contribution of agriculture to gross domestic product. As a result, millions of Filipinos dependent on the sector have remained poor.
Sec. Tiu Laurel earlier estimated that over the next few years, P93B is needed for postharvest facilities to reduce rice and corn wastage while around P1.2 trillion would be required to irrigate an additional 1.2 million hectares to boost rice production and reduce importation.
Under the preliminary expenditure numbers for 2025, bulk of the budget increase will go to DA attached corporations including the National Irrigation Administration, National Food Authority, Philippine Coconut Authority, Philippine Fisheries Development Authority and the National Dairy Authority. The proposed combined budget for the eight DA attached corporations is P287.98B, more than triple their total budget of P94.30B for this year.
For the DA itself, the envisioned budget for 2025 is nearly double at P225.83B compared to P114.28B this year to allow various bureaus cope with the need to modernize the fisheries and farm sectors as well as address food safety and anti-smuggling efforts.
The rice subsector will continue to account for the lion’s share of the budget proposal, with an allocation of P294.21B, or 57 percent of the total outlay for next year. Next is the fisheries sub-sector that will get P50.6B while locally-funded projects will be allotted P45.48B.
Other subsectors and their budgets are cross-cutting programs, P34.5B; high value crops, P32B; livestock, P28.56B; foreign-assisted, P13.77B; corn, P11.3B; and credit program, P3.38B. ###
