Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno detailed the Marcos administration’s policies and projects supported by official development assistance (ODA) financing to transform the agriculture sector during the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP)’s 6th Sustainable Agriculture Forum on September 7, 2023 at the Dusit Thani Manila.
The Forum engaged both the public and private sectors in high-level discussions on issues affecting the Philippines’ agriculture sector, allowing them to collaborate on strategies to support its transformation and growth.
“Within the first year of the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., we have secured more than 1.6 billion US dollars in ODA financing for agriculture-related programs and projects,” Secretary Diokno said in his pre-recorded keynote message.
Among these, the Finance Secretary cited the US$ 500 million loan agreement with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for the Competitive and Inclusive Agriculture Development Program (Subprogram 2), which aims to increase the competitiveness and inclusiveness of the agriculture sector.
Furthermore, the DOF signed loan agreements with the World Bank (WB) amounting to US$ 876 million to develop the agriculture and fisheries sectors.
First, the Mindanao Inclusive Agriculture Development Project (MIADP) aims to sustainably increase the agricultural productivity, resiliency, and accessibility to markets and services of organized farmers and fisherfolks in selected ancestral domains and for selected value chains in Mindanao.
Second, the Philippine Fisheries and Coastal Resiliency (FishCoRe) Project aims to improve fisheries management, enhance the value of fisheries production, and elevate incomes in selected coastal communities.
Third, the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) Scale-Up aims to boost farmer and fisherfolk access to markets, increase income from selected agri-fishery value chains, and improve efficiency in the food supply chain.
These projects are guided by the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2023-2028, which is a plan to reinvigorate job creation and accelerate poverty reduction by steering the economy back on a high-growth path.
Chapter 5 of the PDP specifically focuses on modernizing agriculture and agribusiness that should result in the enhanced production of the agriculture, forestry, and fisheries (AFF) sector, expanded access to markets and AFF-based enterprises, improved resilience of AFF value chains, and strengthened agricultural institutions.
The Inter-agency Committee on Inflation and Market Outlook (IAC-IMO), co-chaired by the Department of Finance (DOF) and National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), is in charge of overseeing the inflation situation in the country with the goal of maintaining price stability by intensifying supply-side interventions and demand-side management measures.
Serving as the concurrent Secretary of the Department of Agriculture (DA), President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. has put a premium on food security since the beginning of the administration.
According to Secretary Diokno, this entails taking advantage of economies of scale in production, increasing infrastructure in the agriculture sector, and providing extended financing to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), farmers, and fisherfolks.
The government aims to improve production efficiency through the adoption of modern technologies and infrastructure projects that support agricultural processes such as farm-to-market roads that aid the transport of farm inputs and products from farms to trading centers.
“Transforming the country’s agriculture sector into an engine of sustainable and inclusive growth is no easy feat. It will require the combined strengths, insights, and resources of the public and private sectors,” Secretary Diokno said in closing.
