The Department of Agriculture (DA) is harmonizing its policy making process and decreed that future policy crafting undergo a step process review prior to implementation.
The strict study-and-review policy is consistent with the terms of DA Administrative Order 1 issued on 5 February this year and with the Ease of Doing Business Act of 2018 seeking to prevent adding “undue regulatory burden and cost to affected sectors of the economy.
The DA said all draft regulatory policies and proposed guidelines will now be subjected to policy review under a regulatory clearinghouse system. A policy research service will conduct an initial review of a proposed regulation.
After the initial review, proposed policies are endorsed to the assistant secretary for review on consistency with other regulations, then to undersecretary and eventual submission to the DA secretary for final approval and legal review.
This develops as the DA cited data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showing that 24.4 percent of the 50.5 million employed in December 2023 were in the agriculture sector, numbering around 12.3 million Filipinos.
The agency said the sector generated 715,000 new jobs in December, the second most for the month when the unemployment rate slipped to 3.1 percent, the lowest in 2023.
“We could do much more in generating jobs and helping more Filipinos in agriculture to have better lives. The DA is now completing a three-year strategy that will modernize agriculture, attract more investments, and produce more to ensure food security,” said Laurel in a statement.
He said the DA seeks to boost productivity to ensure stable food supply at reasonable prices, reduce imports and improve farmer income to attract a new generation of farmers to replace an already aging population.
He also said the government looks to invest heavily in irrigation, machinery, post-harvest facilities and other farm inputs to boost production, lower costs, improve efficiency and raise returns for farmers in the wake of a record-high palay harvest of 20.06 million MT last year.
