Underscoring the crucial contribution of the agri-fishery sector in the Philippine economic recovery and national development efforts, the Department of Agriculture is seeking a bigger budget in 2021, totaling P284.4 billion (B), more than thrice its current budget of P79.9B.
Note that that news item says clearly:
“Underscoring the crucial contribution of the agri-fishery sector in the Philippine economic recovery and national development efforts…”
That is what the House Committee on Agriculture & Food Chair Wilfrido Mark Enverga missed and therefore almost dismissed the tripled DA budget, that which he said could just be a “wish list” for agri-fishery – meaning, the DA could be merely fishing!
I suspect House Chair Enverga has not been paying attention to the direct relationship betweenagriculture and economy. According to Indian agriculture, food and trade policy expert Devinder Sharma:
“Make no mistake: Agriculture alone has the potential to reboot the economy[1].”
I repeat my title:
Rebooting PH Agriculture Is Rebooting PH Economy!
(Reboot image from CDM Smith[2], PH flag & map from Victorified[3])
Secretary of Agriculture William Dar told the members of the House Committee on Agriculture and Food during the teleconference on 08 July 2020:
The agri-fishery sector, for the longest time, has been a ‘sleeping giant’ of the national economy, whose vast potentials remain largely untapped to achieve higher and sustainable growth. While the agriculture sector contributes about 10 percent (%) to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), it gets a measly share of total national appropriations, at three to five percent (every time) in the last 10 years.
From “measly share,” the proposed budget will bankroll existing (P61.8B) and new (P222.6B) DA programs and projects in 2021. Specifically, in 2021, the DA aims to further increase the production of major commodities, with respective proposed budgets for:
Rice – P56B;
Fisheries – P22.5B;
High-Value Crops – P13.7B;
Livestock & Poultry – .2B; and
Corn – P6.6B.
It also wishes to spend P130B for bankrolling locally funded projects, construction of farm-to-market roads, implementation of national soil health, and young farmers’ programs; P7.15B as counterpart for foreign-assisted projects such as the Philippine Rural Development Project; market development services – P3B; and organic agriculture – P960.4 million.
Mr Enverga must have thought that Mr Dar was asking for the sky! He probably did not know his wide-ranging “New Thinking For Agriculture.” He did not know Mr Dar can juggle millions of dollars and a hundred projects in his head as he in fact did when he was Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT 2000-2014, based in India. I know because I was working from home as international consulting writer for ICRISAT from 2007 to 2014.
Mr Enverga and his House Committee have never met a mind like Mr Dar’s – in any case, the Philippines has never met an economic and agricultural crises like what we have right now.
Yes: The Philippines needs a science mind and manager like Mr Dar!@517
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