The Department of Agriculture is seeking an additional P12 billion to the proposed P95-billion budget for 2021 to prepare the local sector and address global challenges to food and agriculture.
“We are entering a ‘new world’ wherein every country in the world is coping with huge challenges. These include the lingering and mutating COVID-19 pandemic, increasing prices of petrol, fertilizers and feeds, climate change, population dynamics, urbanization and aging farmers, and preventing entry of transboundary animal and plant diseases,” said Agriculture Secretary William Dar.
Dar said the global challenges would continue to adversely impact food production, distribution and consumption next year that would require bigger budgetary support.
The DA’s P12-billion augmentation request will be allocated for fertilizer subsidy at P8.9 billion; P2 billion for additional budget for corn program; and P1.1 billion for urban agriculture.
