Add P17B to Agriculture budget, solons urged

A broad alliance of some 100 non-government groups belonging to the Alternative Budget Initiative of Social Watch Philippines (SWP) urged senators on Monday to add P17.7 billion to the budget of the Agriculture Department and to grant almost two-thirds of that amount to agencies vulnerable to climate change. Saying that climate change is expected to bring harsher storms and more extreme weather disturbances, Rice Watch and Action Network (R1) Lead Convenor Jessica Cantos urged the government to allocate additional money to existing programs of the department with projects that enable farmers to cope with climate change-induced disasters. R1 is pushing for an added P9 billion to go to the National Food Authority, P2 billion to the Quedan and Rural Credit Guarantee Corp. (Quedancor), and P200 million to the department’s Supplementary Program on Income Diversification via the Palayamanan strategy. “As we anticipate more incidents of extreme and unpredictable weather conditions, the least that the government can do is to protect the livelihood of Filipino farmers and reduce their vulnerability to the damaging impacts of climate change," said Cantos said. Following the massive destruction brought by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the fifth strongest storm to ever hit the United States, international climate change scientists have warned that global warming will bring more super storms, colder winters, droughts, and other extreme weather conditions. R1 said that the food agency can use the P9 billion to buy palay in order to secure 5 percent of the country’s national requirement, or some 553,000 tons, as well as buy palay from farmers to make them less prone to exploitation by unscrupulous traders and at the same time keep palay prices stable. “With farmers’ produce damaged by typhoon Juan, the farmers [are now] at the mercy of local rice traders who will most likely tie the prices of palay to its lowest level unless the government is able to decisively influence the market," Cantos said. Micro-credit fund Under the General Appropriations Act recently approved by the House of Representatives, the NFA did not get a budget allocation, she noted. R1 also urged for an additional P2 billion for the Quedancor, to be used as a micro-credit fund for farmers and other agriculture producers. Providing credit support will help farmers cope with and bounce back from the damage wrought by super typhoons and other extreme weather events, the group said. The Quedancor, the department’s microlending institute, was patterned after the Grameen Bank, founded by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus. Experience of that international microlending bank has shown that small loans to poor people do not only lift direct beneficiaries from poverty, but also set off a ripple of good developments that can eventually develop entire communities. The Palayamanan strategy under the Supplementary Program on Income Diversification — a program of the Philippine Rice Research Institute — is another program that the R1 sought to support with an additional P200 million. A beefed-up Palayamanan budget will help create additional sources of income for Filipino rice farmers, apart from the money they earn from producing rice, R1 said. Realigning budget items The fund its proposals, R1 is also pushing for the realignment of a number of “contestable budget line items" in the National Expenditure Program. If allocated, this will free almost P96 billion to fund its proposals, the group noted. The rice NGO is also seeking a review and possible reduction of the P27.7 billion allocated to the lump-sum expenditure items of the Office of the Agriculture Secretary and the realignment of freed money to more local projects, the output of which can be measured. R1 is a leading member of the Alternative Budget Initiative’s agriculture cluster. The Alternative Budget Initiative, in turn, is an ongoing campaign and project of the Social Watch Philippines, a broad coalition of development some 100 NGOs and a number of individuals that seeks to increase people’s awareness and participation in promoting social development concerns with government. Each year, the SWP submits a country report to Global Social Watch Report, which in turn is submitted to the United Nations Social Development Commission. The Social Watch global report serves as a progress report on the social development accomplishments — or the lack of accomplishment — of different countries in the world. The House of Representatives approved two weeks ago the proposed P1.6-trillion 2011 national budget, but the Senate still needs to wind up its budget hearings. The bicameral congress is now on a two-week break. Sen. Francis N. Pangilinan, chairman of the Senate agriculture and food committee, has asked Congress to enact a supplemental budget for agriculture following the heavy damage caused by typhoon Juan. — With Danilova Molintas/VS, GMANews.TV