Speaking before the Food Security Forum of the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines (EJAP), Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel Jr. said agriculture has long been expected to feed the nation, tame inflation and provide livelihoods for millions despite decades of chronic underinvestment.
The secretary said the sector’s contribution to the economy has steadily declined, with agriculture’s share of gross domestic product shrinking from 19 percent in 2005 to just 7.9 percent two decades later. While part of the decline reflects the expansion of industry and services, he said it also reveals years of treating agriculture as “yesterday’s industry instead of tomorrow’s insurance policy.”
That mindset, he said, has changed under President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., who has nearly doubled the Department of Agriculture’s budget from about P117 billion in 2022 to roughly P215 billion today.
For 2027, the DA is looking at a budget that approaches P250 billion. ### (Photos by Darrel Gultia, DA-OSEC Comms)
