Group seeks more focus on livestock, fishery in proposed P32-billion agri stimulus package

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc. (PCAFI) is urging Congress to include livestock and fishery in its proposed P32-billion economic stimulus-response package.

This appeal was contained in a PCAFI letter addressed to Rep. Joey Salceda, chair of Congress’ Economic Stimulus-Response Package and Agriculture Secretary William Dar.

PCAFI president Danilo Fausto said they acknowledged the significant value of the proposed P32-billion stimulus package, adding that it has limitations.

“While the P32-billion proposed supplemental budget will be of tremendous help to enable the agriculture stakeholders to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic that brought havoc to the industry, we feel it is inadequate and might leave the exclusions of concerns not properly addressed,” he pointed out.

However, Fausto said, their group cited the need for this budget to primarily focus on productivity, not only for rice and corn subsectors, but also for livestock, fishery, export-oriented fruits and vegetables, which would have more value-added resulting in higher income.

“Focus should be on productivity, in time for the increasing demand and consumption towards the 3rd and 4th quarter of 2020, as a result of the grand stimulus package in order for the Philippine economy to recover,” he added.

Fausto also cited the need to allocate budget for logistics to transport fish and other agricultural products from the sources to the markets.

“A lot of these products are wasted due to suspension of airline operation, difficulty in the land transport of perishable fruits, vegetables, fish, meat (specifically pork) and including fingerlings. Since these products are highly perishable, they need enhancement for cold chain support (refrigerated trucks),” said Fausto.

He further pointed at the budget’s preference for rice and corn.

“There is an obvious slant towards rice and corn. Aside from rice, livestock, fishery and aqua need help. The ASF task force are running out of kits and lack veterinarians to monitor the livestock industry. There is a need to provide support on a consistent manner not only when disease outbreaks occur,” Fausto said.

The rice sub-sector gets the bulk of the P32 billion proposed stimulus package – P8.5 billion for rice resiliency project and P7 billion for palay procurement. Another P300 million will be allocated for the corn for food project.

On the other hand, the integrated livestock and corn resiliency project; expanded small ruminants and poultry project; coconut-based diversification project; and fisheries resiliency project gets P1 billion each.

PCAFI then asked government to transfer the P1.5 billion intended for various purposes to more “value added” dairy, poultry, hogs, fisheries, and feed crops.

This P1.5 billion budget is originally proposed for urban agriculture and protective personal equipment (P500 million each); corn for food project (P300 million; and information, education and communications (P200 million).

PCAFI also submitted several proposals under the government’s “Ahon Lahat, Pagkaing Sapat (ALPAS) Kontra sa COVID-19“ to maximize productivity that will generate higher income for farmers and enable them to contribute to higher gross domestic product./rcg