Department of Agriculture pushes P58-billion budget for next year

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Agriculture (DA) will try its best to defend its request for a P58-billion budget for 2011, even as the Department of Finance and Budget and Management want to extend a much lower budget.

In an interview over the weekend with reporters, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala said he would try to defend the higher budget, even as he acknowledged that the actual figure may end up lower. “They’re proposing much lower (budget),” Alcala said.

DA officials, led by Alcala, are set to negotiate with the DOF to contest the finance agency’s proposed budget cuts.

Alcala, however, argued that the higher budget request is in support of President Aquino’s priority project which is rice self-sufficiency.

President Aquino is expected to include in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) today, the DA’s goal of achieving rice self-sufficiency in just three years.

Currently, Alcala said, about 55 percent of the DA’s budget goes toward the rice program and related programs such as irrigation.

Even so, Alcala noted, the DA has not been able to achieve its rice self-sufficiency goal and has, instead, opted to increase rice importation

Although trying to avoid being critical of his immediate predecessor at the DA, Alcala expressed the view that the failure to achieve rice self-sufficiency is because the DA was not committed enough and did not have the full support of farmers behind their rice program.

Stopping short of making an accusation, Alcala expressed disbelief with the rice imports.

“Fifty-five percent budget sa rice program, pero tayo pa- increase ng pa-increase ang import. Eh, anong kalokohan yan?” Alcala wondered. “Fifty-fiver per cent of the budget is allocated for the (rice) program and yet we continue to increase imports.” 

Alcala was quick to clarify that he is not saying that there is some shenanigan, because he does not have the evidence.

He vowed, though, that for the 2011 budget for rice production, he would ensure that it translates to actual production.

“Hindi ko sinasabing may kalokohan, wala akong ebidensya for that. I’ll do my job para itong budget na nilalagay sa rice production ay ma-i-equate into equivalent production para sa ating rice,” Alcala said.

The DA chief pointed out that rice production is directly proportional to irrigation, thus, financing for rice production would be tied to financing for irrigation projects.

Agriculture Undersecretary Joel Rudinas elaborated that the DA’s budget request and programs is precisely targeted to achieve certain production goals and is not merely following “downstream economics.”

Alcala assured, though, that in the face of a possible budget cut, the DA would still try to maximize its budget to ensure that the money trickles down directly to the small farmers particularly for the mechanization of their farms.