THE Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said that the government will allot nearly P10 billion from a World Bank (WB)-funded 2026 infrastructure project to farm-to-market roads and value-chain rural infrastructure.
In a statement on Thursday, the DBM said the Department of Agriculture (DA) will get P9.98 billion for its flagship Philippine – Rural Development Project Scale-Up project.
The DBM said the project’s value-chain component includes post-harvest facilities and cold storage.
Asked for details, the DBM told BusinessWorld that the P9.98-billion allocation consists of P8.54 billion worth of loan proceeds and P1.43 billion in government counterpart funding.
The DBM said overall, the government expects to invest P16 billion in 1,067 kilometers of farm-to-market roads to help bring down logistics costs for produce growers.
The government is seeking a P256.5-billion budget for agriculture in the 2026 National Expenditure Program.
DA proposes to allocate P3.8 billion for the National Livestock Program and P9.3 billion for the National Fisheries Program.
Meanwhile, the Sugarcane Industry Development Program will get P1 billion to improve sugar production.
“Other national programs of the DA to receive continuous funding next year include the National Corn Program with P6.7 billion, the National High Value Crops Development Program (P2.1 billion), the National Organic Agriculture Program (P1 billion); and the National Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture Program (P391 million),” the DBM said. — Aubrey Rose A. Inosante