Alcala urges DA officials to 'focus and deliver'

MANILA, Philippines - Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala is urging top Department of Agriculture officials to “focus and deliver results” given a bigger budget this year to bankroll major initiatives aimed at sustaining farm and fishery productivity and incomes, and attain self-sufficiency in rice and other staples by end of 2013.

He made the call at the 2012 2nd quarterly DA Management Committee (ManCom) meeting last April 13-14, 2012, in Roxas City, Capiz.

The ManCom meeting was attended by more than 80 top DA officials, composed of undersecretaries, assistant secretaries, and respective directors or head of DA regional field units, bureaus, attached agencies and corporations and DA central office services.

Secretary Alcala said the DA family would vigorously implement major programs and initiatives given a bigger budget.

The DA has an approved 2012 budget of P53.25 billion, excluding attached corporations, or a total of P61.4 billion, including the budget of attached corporations.

Last year, the DA received a total budget of P38.58 billion, including attached agencies and corporations.

“We are here to discuss strategies on how to effectively carry out our respective programs and projects to achieve our food sufficiency targets, and see if we have already gathered momentum to pursue what we set out to do for the rest of the year. Let’s ensure that these directly benefit small farmers, fisherfolk and other agri-fishery stakeholders,” Secretary Alcala said.

For his part, DA undersecretary for finance and administration Antonio Fleta said about P41 billion or 77 percent of the P53 billion budget has been received and frontloaded to various DA regional offices, bureaus and agencies as of March 31, 2012.

The bulk of the DA’s 2012 budget is allotted for irrigation, at P24.45 billion; followed by commodity banner programs, P11.9 billion; regular and other support programs, P11.5 billion, and farm-to-market roads, P5 billion.

During the ManCom meeting, Secretary Alcala enumerated ongoing initiatives and positive developments, which include the following:

• Approval by the NEDA Board of four major irrigation projects (Jaluar in Iloilo, Casecnan in Central Luzon, Umayam in Agusan del Sur, and the National Irrigation Sector Rehabilitation and Improvement Program of NISRIP), totaling P23.8 billion. When completed, these projects would irrigate a total of 138,560 hectares of new and and rehabilitated areas, benefiting more than 94,460 farm-families.

• The NEDA Investment Coordination Committee (ICC) technical board has approved and endorsed to the NEDA Board the extension for another two years of the implementation and additional funding of the Mindanao Rural Development Program.