Piflol said that during the Cabinet liort for 2018.

2018. But the DA was only given Fertilizer and Pesticides Authority
I $icultu€secretarvErnmanuel
A ftnol sot aword fro'm President
II nna"i'so Duterle that the De-
I leu.lrn""nf of Agriculture (DA)
will see a sulge in its This
2020 budget.
mtlns the agency should get a fund of
F490 billion or mor€.
its budget under General Appopriation
meeting on Monday night, he was told F56 billion for 2018.
by Duterte to submit a budget proposal The NFAC then endorsed a budget
"10 times bigger" than what it has now of over ?120 billion for DA for this year
for next year but the agency only gotF4g billion, whidh
In 2017, the National Food and Ag- totaled to FS6billion including the budget
riculture Council (NFAC), the advisory of newly transferred agencies like the
body of the agriculture secto4 endorsed National Fbod Authority (NFA), Philip-
a budgetpuposal for qA of werF200 bil- pine Coconut Authority @CA') and the
The 86 billion also includes the un-
programmed funds of F10 billion under
the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement
Fllnd GCEF) andthe Fl0billion from the
Coco I€WFUnd. Minus the funds of these
attachedagencies andthe pendingRCEF
ard Coco Leryfun4 DA's budget for this
year only stands at ?56 billion including
Act (cAA).
"President Rody Duterte last nigh
Monday nighU assured Filipino farrn
ers and fishermen that agriculture anr
fisheries witl be given a b.igger budge
share to be able to produce more food fo
uoo'"
iof,f';1'Yoo*nt . >B-l

DA expects...
According to him, Duterte
basically told him to say how
much the DA needs and that he
will order Finance Secretary
Carlos Dominguez tol give him
the money.
Ovei the last two Years,
agriculture was given a measlY
share of the national budget,
with the DA getting less than 2
percent of the total budget.
r During the same Cabinet
meeting, Duterte, as cited bY
Piflol, emphasized the need for
bigger support to agriculture
{e.r
noting that the country's
population was increasing bY
about two million every Year.
"Make use of every available
area to grow food. You know
how to do that," Duterte told
Piflol.
Duterte also said.there
should be greater focus on
agricultural infrastructure
and asked the concerned
departments to revisit the Rou-
On, Roll-off (RO{.o) Program
of former President Gloria
Macapagal Arroyo.

*.p4q€-Bt