Higher DA budget for 2020 pushed

It would seem that planting rice would never be fun, especially for hundreds of thousands of farmers who had stopped the backbreaking work in the field because of falling prices of the staple resulting from import liberalization. —WILLIE LOMIBAO

MANILA, Philippines — Lawmakers on Friday vowed to push for the augmentation of the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) budget next year.

Based on the proposed 2020 national budget, the Executive branch allocated  P71.8 billion for DA.  But Agriculture Secretary William Dar said the department has asked for a P333 billion appropriations.

Quezon 1st District Rep. Wilfrido Enverga, who chairs the House agriculture committee, noted the drop in allocation for the national livestock program of the DA, especially in a time where hogs in Rizal are feared to have been afflicted with the African swine fever.

“We may be facing the African swine fever. I think the DA would very much need the augmentation and support of Congress as far as adding the budget, particularly for the livestock industry,” Enverga said during the House budget hearing of the agency’s 2020 budget.

He also said that with the issue of the rice tariffication law and the drop of palay price to as low as P7 per kilo, the budget of the National Food Authority (NFA), which is an attached agency of the DA, also needs to be augmented.

Albay 5th District Rep. Edcel Lagman said he would support any effort to allocate additional funds to the DA.

Congress’ permission

Meantime, Dar said the Duterte government could seek Congress’ permission to allocate funds to NFA, which it would use to buy rice grains or palay from local farmers.

This is in connection with President Rodrigo Duterte’s order to NFA to buy palay from farmers to help them cope with the adverse impact of the rice tariffication law.

Duterte orders NFA to buy palay from farmers

“Mayroong ikinakasa ang economic team na joint resolution na suggestion at of course we would request Congress kung, at your end, to do the same,” Dar said.

Under the law, the government will provide a P10 billion annual Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) for rice farmers for the next six years to cushion the effects of the rice tariffication law,  which allows private traders or companies to import rice without being subject to regulation to stabilize domestic prices.

However, Dar revealed that the fund has yet to be disbursed to farmers.

Also, despite the government being able to collect as much as P9.2 billion worth of tariffs, and is projected to collect as much as P15 billion this year, Dar said the assistance could still take time to reach the farmers.

The DA instead implemented several measures to arrest the plummeting price of palay. Dar said the DA has met with 30 provincial governors and “majority” of them have committed to provide funds amounting to P6 billion to bankroll the milling of palay.

The department also gave out P15,000 worth of loan assistance to rice farmers with zero interest and eight years to pay.

Public order crisis

If, however, the Congress would not resolve to allocate more funds to the DA to help rice farmers through this “looming agricultural crisis”, it could evolve to a “public order crisis,” a party-list group said.

Magsasaka Party-list Rep. Argel Cabatbat said farmers could revolt against the government.

“If we will not help a substantial number of farmers, ‘wag tayong magugulat kung maraming magrerebelde diyan. If we will not augment the budget of the DA this year we may be forced to raise the budget of DND (Department of National Defense) next year,” he said.

“Kung pwede natin agapan ito, agapan natin,” Cabatbat added.