The Department of Agriculture (DA) has issued the guidelines on the conduct of regulatory impact assessment on proposed regulations in the agency.
The DA said the guidelines will ensure harmonization of all of its regulations.
DA Administrative Order No. 1, series of 2024 signed by Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. on February 5 is also in compliance with the Ease of Doing Business Act of 2018 that seeks to prevent adding “undue regulatory burden and cost to affected sectors of the economy.”
The DA order said all draft regulatory policies and proposed guidelines proposed for issuance will now be subjected to policy review under a regulatory clearinghouse system.
A policy research service will conduct an initial policy review of a proposed regulation.
The AO said after the initial review, proposed policies will be endorsed to the assistant secretary for policy, research and development for assessment on the consistency with other regulations before submission to the DA secretary for final approval and legal review.
The DA cited data from the Philippine Statistics Authority which showed24.4 percent of the 50.5 million employed in December 2023 were in the agriculture sector, or around 12.3 million Filipinos.
The agency said the agriculture sector generated 715,000 new jobs in December, the second most for the month when the country’s unemployment rate slipped to 3.1 percent, the lowest in 2023.
“We could do much more in generating jobs and helping more of 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 Tiu Laurel, in a separate statement.
Tiu Laurel emphasized the DA aims to increase food productivity to ensure stable supply at reasonable prices and reduce importation as well as improve farmers’ income to attract a new generation of farmers and replace an already aging population.
He added the government targets to invest heavily in irrigation, machineries, post-harvest facilities and other farm inputs to boost production, lower cost, improve efficiency and raise returns for farmers especially since after booking a record high palay harvest of 20.06 million MT last year.
