“We are entering a ‘New World’ – the global scale of the
‘new normal’ as an offshoot of the Covid-19 pandemic – wherein every country in
the world is coping with huge challenges.” ANN says those are exact words from
PH Secretary of Agriculture William Dar
in his common letter to Senate President Vicente
“Tito” Sotto III and House Speaker Lord
Allan Velasco requesting an
additional P12 Billion to next year’s DA
budget (Author Not Named, 02 Dec
2021, “DA Requests P12 B More, On Top
Of Proposed 2022 Budget, To Address Food, Agri Global Challenges[1],” DA.gov.ph). The P12 B is on top of the already-requested budget of P95 B for 2022.
(budget image[2] from Asian Telegraph)
“(The huge challenges) 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,” Sec Dar wrote Senate
President Tito Sotto and House Speaker Allan Velasco.
Let me enumerate the agricultural woes as Sec Dar stated
them (excluding the pandemic):
(1)
Increasing prices of fuel, fertilizers &
feeds
(2)
Climate change
(3)
Population dynamics
(4) Urbanization & aging farmers
(5) Entry of transboundary diseases of crops cultivated and animals raised.
I note that the more pressing problems for agriculture are
#1 (increasing prices of inputs), #2 (climate change), and #5 (transboundary
diseases of crops & animals). #1 decreases farmer earnings; #2 decreases
farmer yields (and sometimes destroys whole harvests); and #5 sometimes
decimates whole herds in an entire village or group of villages.
“These global challenges will continue to impact adversely
on food production, distribution, and consumption next year and beyond,” Sec
Dar said. “Hence, in the case of the Philippines and we at the Department of
Agriculture, there is a felt need for bigger budgetary support.”
The additional DA budget has been requested, Sec Dar said,
because “the country is in need of a ‘lifeline’ to sustain its productivity and
meet its food security needs.”
Food
security is always a prime national concern.
From the P12 B requested,
P8.9 B is allotted as fertilizer
subsidy, P2 B to the corn program; and P1.1 B to urban agriculture.
“We believe that there is an urgency for the government to
support our farmers in dealing with these global and local challenges,” Sec Dar
said. Take fertilizers. “The increase in prices of inorganic fertilizers due to
the declining global supply has been alarming,” he said. “Big countries and
producers have stocked up most of the fertilizer supply to ensure their local
requirements for crop production and food security.”
If we do not assist our
farmers who produce our food, who will?@517
