The Department of Agriculture said on Monday that it will be putting forward significant changes to its 2025 budget.

Aside from boosting the production of rice, the proposed budget would also increase livestock, poultry, and high-value crop output, widen irrigation coverage using solar-powered systems, improve post-harvest facilities for rice and corn, and rationalize the use of fertilizers.

This is following Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel's target of launching extensive soil mapping and testing to determine which areas in the country are better suited for the cultivation of rice, corn, and other crops and which could be used for other agricultural purposes.

“The budget in 2025 will be very different from this year,” Laurel recently told members of the Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc.(PCAFI).

According to DA, PCAFI has recommended trimming the budget for rice-related projects and redistributing it to high-value livestock and poultry.

Laurel, meanwhile, said the budget for fertilizers needs to be reviewed since fertigation—using fertilizer solutions with irrigation water—has proven a more cost-effective agriculture practice as, according to him, it saves 40 percent of fertilizer while doubling production.

Moreover, he is also finding ways of irrigating 180,000 hectares of crop areas using solar-powered irrigation systems.

As to his early estimations, these additional irrigated areas will yield as much as 1.2 million metric tons of palay per year, or more than 6 metric tons per hectare per year, compared with the national average yield of 4.1 metric tons last year.

The department’s budget for this year is P197.84 billion, of which P118.66 billion is allocated for rice-related proposals.

The 2024 budget of the DA is P5.03 billion for high-value and other crops and P6.15 billion for livestock and poultry.