Deputy Speaker LRay Villafuerte has endorsed a much bigger outlay for the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in 2021 for the establishment of “mega-farms” nationwide, in step with his envisioned government strategy to energize Philippine agriculture and achieve food security, especially at this time of the prolonged coronavirus pandemic.
During a recent hearing of the House committee on appropriations on the proposed DAR budget for next year, Villafuerte moved for an increase of P3 billion to P5 billion in the Department’s total outlay so it could carry out its Mega Farms and Food Security Program in 2021.
“The DAR submitted the mega farms proposal to the House. I am in favor of the concept as it involves consolidating farms.”
Villafuerte’s support for a higher DAR budget for its “mega farms’ initiative is in line with the deputy speaker for finance’s “advocacy of priority state funding for agriculture to ensure national food security, especially at this time when the pandemic threatens to disrupt global food supplies.”
He pointed out that, “If there is one thing that the ongoing global health crisis has taught us is the primacy of self-sufficiency as countries isolate themselves and shutter their businesses in a frantic bid to prevent the spread of a highly infectious pathogen that has sickened more than 27 million people and killed over 900,000 across the globe.”
It was learned during the committee hearing that the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) only approved a 2021 allocation of P8.8 billion for DAR, which is 7 percent below the department’s budget of P9.5 billion this year.
Undersecretary Bernie Cruz said during the panel hearing that with this 2021 budget plan, the Department wouldn’t have enough funds to implement the Mega Farms and Food Security Program.
This revelation prompted Villafuerte and Magsasaka Rep. Argel Cabatbat to propose during the committee hearing an increase in the DAR budget for the implementation of this program.
“I strongly push for the budget increase of DAR by P3 billion to P5 billion for the Mega Farms concept,” Villafuerte said.
DAR Undersecretary David Erro said during the hearing that his office has already pinpointed government owned-lands (GOLs) that can be used not only for the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) but also for President Duterte’s Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-asa (BP2) program and the DAR’s Mega Farms and Food Security Program.
Villafuerte has authored HB 6970 that aims to fast-track the Balik Probinsya program, which has secured the full backing of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), the country’s biggest business organization that boasts 35,000 small, medium and large enterprises nationwide.
“We cite the timeliness and are fully supportive of a bill filed in Congress by Deputy Speaker LRay Villafuerte, which will provide the basis for ensuring the sustainability of this program,” said PCCI president Ambassador Benedicto Yujuico and former GMA-7 president-CEO Menardo Jimenez, who chairs PCCI’s Balik Probinsya program, in their letter to President Duterte.
Under the Mega Farm concept, the DAR aims to develop 50-hectare areas for the specialized production of specific crops.
“If there is one thing that the ongoing global health crisis has taught us is the primacy of self-sufficiency.”
For Villafuerte, a former appropriations committee vice chairman, the DBM-endorsed DAR P8.85 billion budget for DAR in 2021 is “too small,” considering that only P741 million was allotted for the Agrarian Reform Beneficiary and Sustainability Program.
“The DAR submitted the mega-farm proposal to the House. I am in favor of the concept as it involves consolidating farms now owned by beneficiaries into 50-hectare plantations in order to develop these for commercial farming. This will liberate the beneficiaries from subsistence farming,” Villafuerte said.
Villafuerte is one of the authors of House Resolution (HR) No. 925 affirming the chamber’s commitment to pass a P66-billion supplemental budget for the Department of Agriculture (DA) for the recovery of the agriculture and fisheries sector from the havoc wrought by the coronavirus pandemic.
HR 925 was passed by the chamber just two days after President Duterte, in his 5th State of the Nation Address (SONA), championed the DA’s ‘Plant, Plant, Plant” program and sought congressional approval of “this P66-billion agricultural stimulus package (that) will help the agriculture and fisheries sector recover” from the COVID-19 outbreak.
The resolution was also authored by Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, Majority Leader Martin Ferdinand Romualdez and Representatives Lucy Torres-Gomez and Florida Robes.
HR 925 expressed “the commitment of the House of Representatives to enact the proposed P66-billion supplemental budget of the DA to support its programs in addressing the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly in the areas of food and nutrition, security and price stability.”
Earlier, Villafuerte pushed a “re-prioritization” of the proposed 2021 General Appropriations Act (GAA), with a hefty part of the annual budget going not only to infrastructure and social services but also to agricultural development—“with the long-term goal of attaining sufficiency in rice and other basic foodstuff in the post-pandemic scenario.”
“Alongside ‘Build, Build, Build,’ the Duterte administration needs to likewise put ‘Plant, Plant, Plant’ on the front burner to best prepare the country for the ‘new normal’ once the pandemic spawned by the lethal COVID-19 has been contained,” Villafuerte said.
“While rebooting the President’s centerpiece infrastructure modernization program would enable the economy to stage a quick recovery, giving top priority as well to agriculture development would boost farm output that would, hopefully, make the Philippines self-sufficient in rice and other basic foodstuff in the long run,” he said.
Villafuerte co-chairs with Torres-Gomez the Defeat COVID-19 Ad Hoc Committee (DCC)’s social amelioration cluster, which approved HR 821 last May in support of the DA’s supplemental budget for its food supply availability and price stabilization programs.
Although it might be easier and even cheaper to just import rice and other prime agricultural products, Villafuerte said the tendency of certain countries to hold off on exports of their surplus commodities would work against the Philippines’ favor in the post-pandemic era.
In one disturbing development, Villafuerte recalled that Vietnam, which is the No. 1 source of the Philippines’ rice imports, bared plans in March to reduce or even put off exports of its surplus rice stocks, to guarantee enough supply for its people during the health crisis.
Earlier reports claimed that Russia has planned to cut its grains shipments abroad to protect its own food security while Kazakhstan has also banned the overseas sale of its wheat flour, carrots, sugar and potatoes, Villafuerte said.
“What happens when the time comes when we might have all the money to import rice or other basic agricultural commodities, but there is nowhere to buy them?” he stressed.
Deputy Speaker LRay Villafuerte has endorsed a much bigger outlay for the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in 2021 for the establishment of “mega-farms” nationwide, in step with his envisioned government strategy to energize Philippine agriculture and achieve food security, especially at this time of the prolonged coronavirus pandemic.
During a recent hearing of the House committee on appropriations on the proposed DAR budget for next year, Villafuerte moved for an increase of P3 billion to P5 billion in the Department’s total outlay so it could carry out its Mega Farms and Food Security Program in 2021.
Villafuerte’s support for a higher DAR budget for its “mega farms’ initiative is in line with the deputy speaker for finance’s “advocacy of priority state funding for agriculture to ensure national food security, especially at this time when the pandemic threatens to disrupt global food supplies.”
He pointed out that, “If there is one thing that the ongoing global health crisis has taught us is the primacy of self-sufficiency as countries isolate themselves and shutter their businesses in a frantic bid to prevent the spread of a highly infectious pathogen that has sickened more than 27 million people and killed over 900,000 across the globe.”
It was learned during the committee hearing that the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) only approved a 2021 allocation of P8.8 billion for DAR, which is 7 percent below the department’s budget of P9.5 billion this year.
Undersecretary Bernie Cruz said during the panel hearing that with this 2021 budget plan, the Department wouldn’t have enough funds to implement the Mega Farms and Food Security Program.
This revelation prompted Villafuerte and Magsasaka Rep. Argel Cabatbat to propose during the committee hearing an increase in the DAR budget for the implementation of this program.
“I strongly push for the budget increase of DAR by P3 billion to P5 billion for the Mega Farms concept,” Villafuerte said.
DAR Undersecretary David Erro said during the hearing that his office has already pinpointed government owned-lands (GOLs) that can be used not only for the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) but also for President Duterte’s Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-asa (BP2) program and the DAR’s Mega Farms and Food Security Program.
Villafuerte has authored HB 6970 that aims to fast-track the Balik Probinsya program, which has secured the full backing of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), the country’s biggest business organization that boasts 35,000 small, medium and large enterprises nationwide.
“We cite the timeliness and are fully supportive of a bill filed in Congress by Deputy Speaker LRay Villafuerte, which will provide the basis for ensuring the sustainability of this program,” said PCCI president Ambassador Benedicto Yujuico and former GMA-7 president-CEO Menardo Jimenez, who chairs PCCI’s Balik Probinsya program, in their letter to President Duterte.
Under the Mega Farm concept, the DAR aims to develop 50-hectare areas for the specialized production of specific crops.
For Villafuerte, a former appropriations committee vice chairman, the DBM-endorsed DAR P8.85 billion budget for DAR in 2021 is “too small,” considering that only P741 million was allotted for the Agrarian Reform Beneficiary and Sustainability Program.
“The DAR submitted the mega-farm proposal to the House. I am in favor of the concept as it involves consolidating farms now owned by beneficiaries into 50-hectare plantations in order to develop these for commercial farming. This will liberate the beneficiaries from subsistence farming,” Villafuerte said.
Villafuerte is one of the authors of House Resolution (HR) No. 925 affirming the chamber’s commitment to pass a P66-billion supplemental budget for the Department of Agriculture (DA) for the recovery of the agriculture and fisheries sector from the havoc wrought by the coronavirus pandemic.
HR 925 was passed by the chamber just two days after President Duterte, in his 5th State of the Nation Address (SONA), championed the DA’s ‘Plant, Plant, Plant” program and sought congressional approval of “this P66-billion agricultural stimulus package (that) will help the agriculture and fisheries sector recover” from the COVID-19 outbreak.
The resolution was also authored by Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, Majority Leader Martin Ferdinand Romualdez and Representatives Lucy Torres-Gomez and Florida Robes.
HR 925 expressed “the commitment of the House of Representatives to enact the proposed P66-billion supplemental budget of the DA to support its programs in addressing the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly in the areas of food and nutrition, security and price stability.”
Earlier, Villafuerte pushed a “re-prioritization” of the proposed 2021 General Appropriations Act (GAA), with a hefty part of the annual budget going not only to infrastructure and social services but also to agricultural development—“with the long-term goal of attaining sufficiency in rice and other basic foodstuff in the post-pandemic scenario.”
“Alongside ‘Build, Build, Build,’ the Duterte administration needs to likewise put ‘Plant, Plant, Plant’ on the front burner to best prepare the country for the ‘new normal’ once the pandemic spawned by the lethal COVID-19 has been contained,” Villafuerte said.
“While rebooting the President’s centerpiece infrastructure modernization program would enable the economy to stage a quick recovery, giving top priority as well to agriculture development would boost farm output that would, hopefully, make the Philippines self-sufficient in rice and other basic foodstuff in the long run,” he said.
Villafuerte co-chairs with Torres-Gomez the Defeat COVID-19 Ad Hoc Committee (DCC)’s social amelioration cluster, which approved HR 821 last May in support of the DA’s supplemental budget for its food supply availability and price stabilization programs.
Although it might be easier and even cheaper to just import rice and other prime agricultural products, Villafuerte said the tendency of certain countries to hold off on exports of their surplus commodities would work against the Philippines’ favor in the post-pandemic era.
In one disturbing development, Villafuerte recalled that Vietnam, which is the No. 1 source of the Philippines’ rice imports, bared plans in March to reduce or even put off exports of its surplus rice stocks, to guarantee enough supply for its people during the health crisis.
Earlier reports claimed that Russia has planned to cut its grains shipments abroad to protect its own food security while Kazakhstan has also banned the overseas sale of its wheat flour, carrots, sugar and potatoes, Villafuerte said.
“What happens when the time comes when we might have all the money to import rice or other basic agricultural commodities, but there is nowhere to buy them?” he stressed.