DA expects budget to more than double in 2019

The Department of Agriculture (DA) expects to more than double its budget for 2019 to P124 billion, bulk of which will go to the rice sector.

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said the budget for next year is 104 percent higher than this year’s allocation of P60.6 billion.

The Philippine Council for Agriculture and Fisheries facilitates broad-based participatory processes in the agriculture and fisheries sector and provides services to a nationwide network of private sector-led consultative councils at the national, regional, and local levels for the formulation of sound policies, plans, and programs.

The budget proposal, however, may still go up as it still doesn’t include allocations for the three agencies recently reverted back to the DA.

“Rice will still be the biggest banner program of the DA. We are also moving from the subsidies to easy access financing,” Pinol said.

Piñol said next year’s budget may be too big as the government shifts to cash budgeting.

“Others are saying that the absorbing capacity of DA may not be able to handle that amount of budget, but we will just endorse the budget proposal because it was already approved by the council and went through the process,” he said.

Starting next year, the gov- ernment will shift to the annual cash-based budget where agencies can only incur contractual obligations and disburse payments for goods delivered and services rendered and inspected within the fiscal year, with an extended payment period of three months.

The Department of Budget and Management said the shift would effectively limit agencies to submit budget proposals which reflect payment of goods and services that would actually be delivered for the year.

The shift is also expected to quicken program delivery and strengthen the focus and accountability of government as target outputs of programs become more clearly linked to their appropriated budget.