The Department of Agriculture (DA) wants a budget of P240 billion for next year to address problems that were highlighted when the new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic hit the country.
One challenge that needs to be hurdled is logistics.
The amount is almost four times bigger than the current year’s budget of P64.7 billion.
DA Secretary William Dar said in a webinar the country’s agriculture sector will remain in survival stage for the next six months.
“Under the survival stage, (what we need) is to really increase our food sufficiency level in all commodities. We need to develop domestic industries (because) anything that we don’t produce here, we import … We also need to maximize the use of science and technology in production areas and we should open up more agricultural lands,” Dar said.
The DA has asked Congress for a stimulus package of P66 billion to ease the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the agriculture sector.
The amount will fund cash -for-work programs for agri-fishery workers. A portion of the stimulus package will be spent to improve food logistics and help finance the Alpas Kontra sa COVID-19 program.
The DA’a cash-for-work program targets to provide jobs to one million agri-fishery workers by payingg them P15,000 each.
