NEDA backs new agri chief’s growth strategies

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) yesterday backed the strategies laid out by new Agriculture Secretary William Dar, saying it will contribute to poverty reduction efforts and enable the agriculture sector to have a bigger contribution to economic output.

Growth in the agriculture sector remained paltry at 0.6 percent in the second quarter from 0.3 percent in the same quarter last year. This was attributed to the contraction in the output of watersensitive crops due to El Nino.

The farm sector contributed 0.04 percentage point to the gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of 5.5 percent in the second quarter of the year.

“The thrusts of the Department of Agriculture, under its new leader, Secretary William Dar, are worth supporting. These will help us achieve food security, protect our farmers from risks, and make the agriculture sector more profitable,” said Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia.

Early this week, Dar said his goal is to pave the way for a three percent to four percent growth in the agriculture sector in the next three years.

Efforts will be concentrated on attaining food security to serve the needs of a population that is growing by 1.8 percent annually.

Dar has put forward a strategy built around eight paradigms that include modernization of agriculture, industrialization, promotion of exports, farm consolidation, roadmap development, infrastructure development, higher budget and investments for agriculture, and legislative support.

Essentially, these are meant to ease farmers into the value chain approach in farming and in the process, doubling their incomes.

Apart from this, Dar is also pushing for a systematic and long-term strategy in developing and promoting exports of raw and processed agricultural products to achieve economies of scale in onfarm production that will generate sustained quantity and quality of export products.

In the near-term, however, Dar said DA’s focus in the next 100 days is to accelerate the implementation of the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund.

He said the RCEF would give farmers important interventions that could make them more productive, competitive and profitable.

Pernia said crop diversification is an important step in increasing the incomes of farmers and lifting them out of poverty.

“Reducing poverty would require much investment in the agri sector, in the rural sector, like rural infrastructure, farm to market roads, post-harvest facilities, and diversification of crops from rice to higher value crops. That has been said a number of times so it has become common expression, diversification of crops,” he said.

NEDA Undersecretary Rose Marie Edillon said putting emphasis on crop diversification would enable farmers to spread risks.