THE national government must allocate some P200 billion to the local farm sector annually to enable Filipino farmers to compete with their foreign counterparts.
Dr. Santiago R. Obien, senior technical adviser of the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) National Rice Program, said the annual budget being allocated to the agency is “small.”
“While the [absolute] amount was higher compared to the budget 10 years ago, it’s small. If you account for inflation and the increase in costs, it’s almost on a par with what the sector was allocated [a decade ago],” Obien said during the BM Coffee Club forum held in Makati City on Thursday.
The DA’s proposed budget for next year is P93.4 billion, 5 percent higher than the P89.1 billion allocated to the agency this year.
Dr. Calixto M. Protacio, executive director of the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), said increasing the allocation for the farm sector would enable the DA to address the “inherent disadvantages” of the Philippines.
“For one, the Philippines is an archipelago, unlike Vietnam and Thailand which experience frequent flooding, making their soil more fertile,” Protacio said.
Aside from this, PhilRice said farmers also have to contend with climate change as changing weather patterns now make it difficult for farmers in the Visayas to grow rice.
In recent years, strong typhoons have been making landfall on provinces in central Philippines. The most damaging by far is Supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan) which hit Leyte in November 2013.
Protacio said the continuous increase in population is also compounding the challenges now being faced by Filipino farmers.
“In Angat Dam, for example, water there is for domestic use. Farmers in Bulacan are already complaining because they do not get irrigation water,” he said. Obien, a former executive director of PhilRice, noted that land preparation and cultivation in some parts of the country remain “primitive.”
“We have always been thinking small. It’s time for us to put more money into our farm sector,” he said.
Image credits: Nonoy Lacza