Department of Agriculture seeks more funding for high-value crops

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture (DA) is seeking an eight fold increase in its budget for its high-value crops (HVC) program next year to improve the productivity of around 30 commodities and expand exports of key commodities.

Based on its budget proposal, the DA wants P16.772 billion for its HVC program in 2025, about 765.54 percent higher than its P1.937 billion budget this year.

The exponential increase that is being sought by the DA is aimed at providing “transformative interventions” to almost 30 high-value crops in the country, Agriculture Undersecretary Cheryl Marie Natividad-Caballero said.

The budget of the HVC program has been between P1.5 billion and P2 billion in recent years, which is quite small since the program covers a lot of commodities nationwide, she said.

“(We want) to address farm productivity of our major crops, especially those that are exported like bananas, provide value addition and address high post-harvest losses (of commodities),” Caballero told reporters in a recent interview in Malaybalay, Bukidnon.

A portion of the proposed higher budget would be used in producing and providing quality planting materials to farmers and encouraging them to embrace balanced fertilization to hike their productivity, the agriculture official said.

To do so, the DA aims to establish tissue culture laboratories for some high-value crops, such as potatoes.

The DA would also invest in various research and development measures to improve the quality of the country’s crops and even protect their varietal identities.

For example, Caballero said, the DA wants to improve the pungency of local garlic without the need to make them bigger since the country produces smaller-sized garlic.

The DA would also embark on a DNA fingerprinting project for ube, coffee liberica and garlic to preserve the local identities of these high-value crops compared to other countries.

Furthermore, the department aims to slash post-harvest losses by establishing multi-purpose cold storage chiller facilities in key production areas as well as provide value addition opportunities to farmers through dehydrators, Caballero said.