The Department of Agriculture (DA) has intensified its work to modernize agriculture through the development of 1.67 million hectares of land for agribusiness and agro-forestry projects all over the country.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap said the program was actually developed as part of the country's Medium Term Philippine Development Program (MTPDP).

Yap said DA as collaborated with the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) since 2005 to work on the program under the so-called National Convergence Initiative (NCI).

President Arroyo has been partial to agribusiness ventures, saying that agrarian reform farmers must work with capitalists and government alike in making the best use of arable land and guaranteeing better returns for farmers.

The total hectarage developed is equivalent to 81 percent of the two million hectare target by 2010, Yap said. For job generation, 2,438,871 positions have been created, or 85 percent of the target.

The DA was able to develop 1.328 has of land under this convergence initiative, which led to the creation of 2.094 million jobs, while the DENR was able to develop 60,205 hectares equivalent to the same number of jobs, and the DAR 286,780 hectares, which corresponded to 285,028 new jobs.

DA has also started retooling its budget to enable agriculture to meet the twin challenges of climate change and the demands of global free trade.

The DA has done this by allocating 82 percent of its P47-billion budget to various support services, such as the provision of flatbed dryers, corn drying centrals, fish ports, and storage warehouses for farm produce, market linkages, strengthening of regulatory and disease eradication capabilities, and the establishment of satellite-based remote sensing and geographic information systems.

DA is also strengthening its statistics and forecasting capabilities, developing and distributing climate-ready crops seeds which are submergence, drought and disease-tolerant, engineering climate change-adapted infrastructure for production and processing, enabling more financing for agriculture through innovative weather-based insurance schemes and disseminating more information, knowledge and training in crops science and planting techniques.