The Agriculture and Fisheries Alliance (AFA) urged local government units (LGUs) to allocate at least 10 percent of their internal revenue allotment (IRA) for food security-related programs starting next year following a hike in their share from the national revenue due to Mandanas ruling.
Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc. (PCAFI) President Danilo V. Fausto cautioned that the Department of Agriculture (DA) may face budget cuts next year since the government will be implementing the Mandanas ruling, which hikes LGU’s IRA by 27.6 percent. PCAFI is a convener of the AFA.
Fausto noted that with the increase in LGU’s IRA, which is expected to reach over P1 trillion next year, the national government would be forced to “create fiscal space” but unfunding some projects.
“With the policy of the current administration giving low priority to agriculture, we can project that the unfair allocation of the national budget to DA will further aggravate,” he said.
“It should be mandatory for the LGU to set aside 10 percent of their IRA budget for food security. This will mitigate the effect of any reduction in the resources of the DA and help develop the agriculture sector,” he added.
Fausto said it is the task of the LGUs to coordinate with the DA to provide farm extension services to trickle down efficient production techniques and technology in food production to their jurisdiction since agriculture services have been devolved by the local government code.
Fausto said the government may explore issuing a Presidential Executive Order that may mandate the LGUs to allocate 10 percent of their IRA for food security-related programs.
Fausto lamented that despite contributing 10 percent to the country’s GDP, the agriculture sector only receives a “measly” 1.5-percent share of the annual national budget.
This, he pointed out, “show clear disparity in budget allocation and the lack of priority given by the administration to food production leading to food sufficiency and food security.”
Worse, disparity in fund allocation by the DA is also evident given the miniscule support to the livestock and poultry sectors, despite contributing about a third of total agricultural output, compared to total budget poured in the rice sector, Fausto said.
Fausto pointed out that the livestock and poultry sector only received P3.21 billion in funding support this year compared to the P35.27 billion being allocated to the rice sector.
“National government should give priority to food security by providing a fair and balanced national budget based on its parity contribution to the growth of the economy and consequently from the DA, a fair and equal allocation of budget to the different agriculture sectors on the basis of their contribution to agricultural production,” he said.
“This should give elbow room for the DA to address issues on biosecurity, first border control, ASF [African swine fever] and other diseases,” he added.
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