How Smart DA Can Spend 2025 Budget Of PH 200 Billion? I Have A Million-Dollar Suggestion!

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I’m reading the news from the Department of Agriculture (DA): “DA Chief Pushes (For) Smart Investments, High-Return Projects In Agri Budget” (DA Press Office, 10 Feb 2025, da.gov.ph). The total budget for the DA is PH200 Billion (“House OKs 2025 DA, NIA Budgets,” Anon, DA Press Office, DA).

PH200 Billion! I love it that the PH government can afford to supply the DA with a very rich source of investments.

Now the reality: PH has 6 million ha of farms (according to a Manila Standard Business report dated 30 Dec 2024, manilastandard.net).

I will initially say that the farmer will save thousands of pesos (and the government will save millions of pesos) if each farmer borrower employed any of the following cropping methods (alphabetized):

(1) Cover Cropping,

(2) Crop Rotation,

(3) Farm Crops + Tree Crops (Agroforestry),

(4) Green Manuring,

(5) Intercropping,

(6) Multiple Cropping,

(7) No-Till Farming,

(8) Organic Fertilization,

(9) Ratooning,

(10) Rotational Grazing,

(11) “Three Sisters” Planting,

(12) Trap Cropping, and

(13) Trash Mulching.

That personal list of mine I refer to as “Regenerative Agriculture,” which is defined by Julia Friedberg (Regeneration International, April 06, 2021, regenerationinternational.org) thus:

“Regenerative agriculture (is) a set of farming practices that return(s) nutrients to the earth and rehabilitate(s) entire ecosystems, rather than deplet(es) them.”

Why the great savings? Because in any of the 13 in the above RA list, there is no need for fertilizers and pesticides – and still the farmer will get the optimum harvest! Nota bene DA!

From optimum harvest, RA will give the farmer optimum income! Why because the farmer will use only natural methods of farming. Optimum total costs. No expensive fertilizers and pesticides.

Again, from the above DA news report:

Agriculture Secretary Francisco P Tiu Laurel Jr stressed the need to prioritize projects with strong, sustainable returns as the Department of Agriculture (DA) develops its multiyear budget plan.

Sec Tiu Laurel Jr, natural methods of farming can only mean sustainable returns!

Speaking at a recent two-day budget planning session, he urged DA officials to allocate limited resources strategically, focusing on projects with an internal rate of return of 12%-14% per year or a payback period of no more than seven years to ensure bankability and profitability.

A payback period of no more than seven years. To ensure bankability and profitability. Any RA practice will give you both!

… Sec Tiu Laurel also called for diversifying agricultural activities to strengthen the sector’s resilience…

Precisely! None of the 13 RA practices listed above is limited to a single crop.

Most importantly: None of the RA 13 requires neither expensive chemical fertilizer nor expensive chemical pesticides – RA is all-natural.

Note well: In the current agriculture scheme, alone, with only 1 chemical fertilizer, the total cost is already PH2,969.92/bag urea, x 4 bags = +PH11,000 (Catherine Talavera, 08 June 2022, philstar.com). High costs – no wonder millions of Filipino farmers are poor!

So: How to help the farmers enrich themselves with their farming – that should be the highest priority of the DA!@517