THE Department of Agriculture (DA) has submitted to President Duterte its draft proclamation declaring a state of national emergency to prevent the further spread of African Swine Fever (ASF) in the country.
Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar submitted the draft to Duterte on March 17, based on a copy of the memorandum released to the media on Thursday.
In his memorandum, Dar explained that the ASF, a severe and fatal pig disease, has already spread to 12 regions, 40 provinces, 466 cities and municipalities and 2,425 barangays nationwide to date.
“Over 3 million heads of pig have been lost due to the disease, causing a contraction in pork supply and an unprecedented increase in the price of basic agricultural commodities,” Dar said.
Dar said the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Food and Agrarian Reform had passed a resolution urging the DA to recommend to the chief executive the declaration of a state of emergency due to ASF.
“In view of the above, we respectfully attach a draft proclamation entitled: Declaring a State of National Emergency to Prevent the Further Spread of African Swine Fever by Implementing Biosecurity Measures to Jumpstart the Rehabilitation of the Swine Industry and Appropriating Funds thereof, for his Excellency’s consideration and approval,” Dar’s memorandum read.
Dar said the declaration of a state of national emergency “would mandate and capacitate concerned government agencies, including the local government units to work together to prevent and control the further spread of ASF.”
Senators earlier said the declaration of a state of emergency would allow the realignment or release of additional public funds to address the problems caused by ASF, such as dwindling pig herd.
“We are urging the DA to [ask the OP] to declare a state of emergency against African Swine Fever, so we can allocate more funds to solve the problem,” Sen. Cynthia A. Villar said last week.
The senators also moved for the inclusion—upon the declaration of a state of emergency—of an indemnification fund for both the backyard and commercial hog raisers affected by ASF.
“The public emergency declaration will now address the miniscule funds allocated [by the DA for solving ASF problems]. The tariffs collected from the imports could also be added to the fund under the public emergency,” Sen. Francis N. Pangilinan earlier said.
The DA has disclosed that it would need at least P34.333 billion to bankroll its three-year ASF recovery program that seeks to bring back and even exceed the country’s pre-ASF pork production level.
The DA said for 2021 it would need a total budget of P9.161 billion, P13.561 billion for 2022 and P11.611 billion for 2023.
The funds will finance four DA programs: calibrated repopulation and intensified production; establishment of swine breeder multiplier farms; provision of insurance premium; and biosecurity and surveillance programs.
For 2021, the DA said it only has P2.372 billion of available funds, thus, it will request an additional P6.789 billion to fully finance its interventions.
Based on its presentation, the DA said it aims to produce 440,563 breeders in the next three years, or more than enough to compensate for the estimated 332,928 breeders lost as of January 1.
The DA added that by 2023 about 10.5 million finishers would be already produced, equivalent to 738,805 metric tons (MT) of pork.
Also by 2023, about 90 percent or 2,100 of ASF-affected barangays will be released from quarantine through the use of the sentinel approach, according to the DA.
The DA has pegged the pork production shortfall this year at 388,790 MT as the country lost at least 3.08 million pigs as of January 1, based on latest PSA data.
The DA said its interventions would result in the additional pork output of 84,000 MT for 2021, 238,192 MT by 2022 and 474,012 MT by 2023.
Furthermore, the DA said the interventions would lead to further pork output for the years 2024 and 2025 with additional production volume of 809,172 MT and 1.144 MMT, respectively.
“Based on our projections it will take a minimum of three years to fully recover if all safeguards and investments and budgets are properly and timely implemented,” Agriculture Undersecretary for Livestock William Medrano said.
Image credits: Bernard Testa