Senate Agriculture and Food Committee chairman Senator Cynthia Villar questioned an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture’s huge budget allocation for corn research, even taunting it as “crazy” over research.
“It would seem all your budget goes to research? You are too crazy to research. What will you do with research?” Villar asked officials of the DA and the National Corn Program.
Under the National Corn Program’s proposed budget for 2020, P150 million was allocated for research.
“Fix this. Imagine, calamity assistance for P265 million? P150 million for research? That’s P400 million already,” stressed Villar during the Senate budget hearing of the Agriculture department’s attached agencies.
“It seems like all of your budget goes to research. You are so crazy about research. What will you do with those research?
Villar said that despite being a smart person, if she could not understand the research, what more of the farmers.
“Does a farmer want research? Don’t they want you to help them? Why is it that all of your budget goes to research?” she asked.
If she were a farmer, Villar stressed she would prefer to receive seeds or machinery instead of anything else.
But National Corn Program national coordinator Lorenzo Carangan said they give assistance to farmers under their proposed budget in the form of seeds and fertilizers.
In the case of technological demonstration projects and modern cluster, he said farmers are being assisted in the form of seeds and fertilizers.
In the same hearing, Senate Majority Leader Miguel Zubiri said the DA and the Sugar Regulatory Administration should thumb down the proposed liberalization of sugar importation.
Zubiri appealed to Agriculture chief Secretary William Dar to reveal his position on the looming tariffs on imported sugar.
“What is deafening is the position of the DA and the SRA on sugar import liberalization. We need a strong voice. We do not want to happen what had happened to rice,” Zubiri said.
The Department of Finance had formally proposed import liberalization for sugar to improve the competitiveness of the industry.
But the Senate leader said the DA alongside SRA should say no to the said proposal and instead commit to making policies that will support the industry.
Zubiri said “We have enough for the mean time. And if we don’t have enough, we will come up with a policy that will support the local industry.:
Dar told the Villar committee that he had instructed the SRA to come up with a position paper on the proposed liberalization to help the DA’s board in its deliberation.
Dar said he had directed the SRA management to come up with a position paper to outline exactly what are the pros and cons.
Earlier, Villar rebuked the under spending for the Sugarcane Industry Development Act (Sida). From the P2-billion budget a year, she noted that the allocation for the law was now down to P500 million due to under spending.
“My God, how can you under spend? Why did you pass that Sida law to us and then [you will not spend the fund intended for it,” she said.