DA targets $2 billion foreign funding for infrastructure projects

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture (DA) is looking at securing at least $2 billion (about P118 billion) in foreign financing next year, including its single largest project loan, to bankroll its various infrastructure programs and projects aimed at improving domestic productivity and enhancing farmers’ welfare.

Agriculture Assistant Secretary and spokesman Arnel de Mesa said the department is inching closer to securing its single largest foreign-assisted project from the World Bank valued at $1 billion.

De Mesa said the multilateral lender would conduct a pre-appraisal mission for the loan that would bankroll the DA’s Philippine Sustainable Agriculture Transformation Project.

The loan agreement for the project is expected to be signed by the middle of next year.

It will be under the World Bank’s program-for-results financing tool, which links the disbursement of funds to the achievement of certain goals and specific results.

“These funds would be used for the priority projects of the President and the (Agriculture) Secretary, which are mostly for agriculture infrastructure projects,” De Mesa said in a press briefing yesterday.

The DA has also started a scoping mission with the World Bank for another $300-million loan facility that will help micro, small and medium enterprises access finance and implement climate resiliency projects, De Mesa said. The loan facility is also expected to be signed next year.

“This project will help MSMEs that were affected by calamities in the next five years,” De Mesa said.

The loan facility will be jointly implemented by the DA with other government agencies including the Department of Finance, Department of Trade and Industry and Agricultural Credit Policy Council.

Furthermore, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $250-million loan for the DA’s flagship solar power irrigation project that would build small-scale irrigation facilities across the country over the next three years, De Mesa said.

The loan facility has been approved by the National Economic and Development Authority Investment Coordination Committee, for review by the NEDA Board chaired by President Marcos.

The project is targeted to be implemented also next year.

The ADB would also provide a $140-million grant for the preparation of the DA’s various infrastructure projects that involve ports, wide-scale irrigation projects and aquaculture projects, De Mesa said.

The agriculture official said the DA would submit this week to the concerned NEDA committee a €350-million (about $367 million) bilateral loan from the French government to finance the department’s farm-to-market bridges project.

De Mesa explained that the string of forthcoming foreign funding would augment the DA’s budget, allowing it to implement programs that would modernize the country’s agriculture sector.

“Every year we are proposing a bigger budget for the DA, but unfortunately the increase is not that much,” De Mesa said.