BAGUIO CITY – As the Duterte administration comes to a close, the Department of Agriculture will be leaving behind a PHP75-billion, 10-year agriculture development plan and endorsing it to the next administration.
The National Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization and Industrialization Plan (NAFMIP 2021-2030) for the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) includes projects on infrastructure, capacity building, and research and development, as well as information dissemination components.
Under the infrastructure support program, at least 1,350 irrigation system projects have to be completed in 10 years, aside from 1,120 kilometers of farm-to-market roads; 1,266 production facilities; 610 post-harvest facilities; 78,988 market-related activities and infrastructure; and 308 other infrastructures.
For the agriculture mechanization program, at least 652 machines and equipment have to be completed during the period.
Around 70,000 information education materials have to be made and at least 12 research and development-related activities.
It also includes activities and programs for input supply and distribution; production support-related activities; policy-related and regulatory-related activities aside from financial and cash assistance and credit.
Dr. Cameron Odsey, regional director of the DA-CAR, in a phone interview on Wednesday said “the 10-year plan will be a framework for the next administration in as far as the Cordillera region is concerned.”
He said the region’s agriculture industry is a relevant part of the food sustainability goal of the country with several food items being produced in the region.
He said the Cordillera’s multi-billion-peso agricultural industry with around two million kilograms of assorted highland vegetables traded every day and transported to different parts of the country.
He said if the next administration will carry on with the plan, the Cordillera’s agriculture will be further boosted as it would mean about PHP7 billion budget going to the region’s agriculture sector.
Odsey said that in 2021, the region got a PHP1.7-billion budget from the general appropriations of the department and PHP2.45 billion in 2022 which is a significant increase.
He said the Cordillera got a low budget allocation because the qualifications and requirements for big funding are commodity-based and the region only produces a low quantity of the priority national commodities.
The director, however, said that while it receives a small piece of the pie under the general appropriations, the region makes up for it through locally and internationally funded projects.
These include the Special Area for Agricultural Development (SAAD); “Kabuhayan at Kaunlaran para sa Kababayang Katutubo” or 4K; the Registry System for Basic Agriculture (RSBA), and the foreign-funded Philippine Rural Development Projects (PRDP).
These programs address priority concerns like enhancement of productivity and food sufficiency, increasing fertilizer prices, taming food inflation, controlling pests and diseases, improving logistics and food mobilization, and improving the delivery of goods and services.
“We are reaching a trajectory na tataas ang (it will increase) production if all those in the plan will be completed,” Odsey said.
The 10-year plan also disaggregated the budget requirement where 71.88 percent of cost-share from the PHP75.5 billion will go to neutral-based commodities; 20.76 percent for corn, livestock, and poultry-based commodities; 3.95 percent for geographically specialized-based commodities; 2.89 percent for rice-based commodities and 0.5 percent for fisheries-based commodities. (PNA)
