The Department of Agriculture (DA) is appealing to lawmakers to increase the budget for its farm-to-market road (FMR) program to P20 billion next year so it could wipe out the construction backlog by 2022.
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said the approved budget for the department’s FMR program next year is only around P6 billion, which, he said, is not enough to eliminate the 13,000-kilometer construction backlog.
“The approved budget is not enough and will allow us to construct only 600 km of farm-to-market road at an average cost of P10 million per km,” Piñol told reporters in a news briefing on Tuesday.
“If this budget will not be increased in the coming years, then the DA could only complete 3,000 km of FMRs by the end of 2022. We will not be able to accomplish what the President wants us to do,” he added.
As the budget for 2018 approved by the Department of Budget and Management is already “a done deal”, Piñol said the national government may tap funds from other sources, such as those allocated for “non-essential programs”, to increase the budget for the FMR program.
The DA chief vowed to “fight” for a sufficient budget for the FMR program in 2019.
“If the DPWH [Department of Public Works and Highways] has ‘Build, Build Build’ program, then the DA should also have its own ‘Build, Build, Build’ for FMRs”, Piñol said. “What’s the point of having big roads if you don’t have the smaller connecting ones which will be used in transporting agricultural products?”
Piñol also said there is a need to “rationalize” the various FMR programs of various government agencies so there would be “one integrated road-network program”.
He added some of the government agencies that are implementing their own FMR programs include the Philippine Coconut Authority, Department of Agrarian Reform, National Irrigation Administration and Sugar Regulatory Administration.