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LEGAZPI
CITY, Nov. 29 (PNA) -- The government needs to infuse P44 billion for
agriculture development to stir up the rural economy and spur
agricultural production in the countrysides, in order to cushion the
impact of the international recession, a top adviser to President
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said today.
Presidential
economic adviser and Albay Governor Jose Ma. Sarte Salceda said the
infusion would soften the effects of the global financial meltdown
specifically to the marginalized sector of the country.
Salceda,
who was a former research head of a Swiss bank, said this “would be the
biggest intervention of the government in response to the global
economic crisis.”
He
said the government’s stimulus in the countryside will be much bigger
if the reinvigorated reforestation program pushes through with a
P5-billion initiative next year to shield the country from global
warming.
Salceda
said all these initiatives are intended to create wealth and strengthen
the purchasing power in the countryside with assistance to the farmers
and to produce cheap and abundant food for all once the effects of the
world-wide financial meltdown start to set in after the first quarter
of 2009.
In
the 2009 proposed national budget, the Department of Agriculture has
been allotted with P45 billion. The National Food Authority has a
contingency provision for a P32-billion yearly loss, which increases
the loss coverage from P8 billion with additional P24 billion.
Salceda
said the incremental loss provision of P24 billion will go to farmers’
assistance with P8.5 billion and to consumers’ subsidy (for the poor)
with P14.5 billion.
He said there will be more aggressive palay procurement next year, of which P17 billion is set aside to buy palay at P17 a kilo.
Salceda
said P20 billion of the 2009 agriculture department’s budget is for
subsidy to food producers, of which P10 billion is for the so-called
FIELDS program, which involves more infrastructure in irrigation,
storage, farm-to-market roads, among other things. (PNA)
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