Senate panel approves proposed 2025 Dept. of Agriculture budget

MANILA, Philippines — The proposed 2025 budget of the Department of Agriculture (DA) and attached agencies and corporations was approved by the Senate subcommittee on finance on Monday.

Under the 2025 National Expenditure Program, the DA and its attached agencies and corporations were allotted a budget of P127,996,123,000.

Senator Cynthia Villar, who presided over the budget hearing, said the proposed budget will now be submitted to the Senate plenary.

The hearing that lasted for four minutes breezed through with no questions raised by the senator herself, other senators, and officials from DA.

Further, the senator bared the budget requests and instructions for other attached agencies and corporations.

“We will just ask the mother committee to provide Rubber Research Institute 50 million and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources 150 million,” Villar said in the hearing.

She added that the support for food safety, the Philippine Carabao Center, the National Dairy Committee, and “sure money” for the Bureau of Animal Industry will be coming from the livestock bill.

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In August, the Senate approved on the third and final reading the Senate Bill No. 2558 or the Act Strengthening Livestock, Poultry, and Dairy Industry, which was authored by Villar, Senators Jinggoy Estrada, Lito Lapid, and Sonny Angara.

Meanwhile, the senator said that the budget for the National Fisheries Research and Development is rejected except for the salt fund.

“The National Fisheries Research and Development Study, this is rejected except the salt fund which we will derive from the tariff on imported salt. We have the salt bill and you demand the tariff from the imported salt and use this for your development of the salt industry,” Villar added.

Senator Nancy Binay previously said during the DA budget hearing that the department should have a “specific line item” for African Swine Fever (ASF) expenses.