Construction of farm-to-market roads seen in August

The Department of Agriculture (DA) is expecting to start the construction of major farm-to-market roads (FMR) by August this year.

At a press briefing in Quezon City on Wednesday, DA spokesperson Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa said the agency is now handling the bidding for FMRs.

The DA is expecting to award contracts to winning bidders between June and July.

“I was appointed as the chair of the BAC (Bids and Awards Committee) for big FMR projects… So, for big infrastructure, we will handle the bidding for that,” de Mesa said.

In April, the DA admitted that it is facing challenges in implementing FMRs due to costing adjustments amid price pressures caused by the global oil crisis, prompting it to defer the start of procurement activities in May.

Under the 2026 General Appropriations Act (GAA), the DA gets an allocation of P33 billion to construct 2,300 kilometers of new FMRs all over the country.

De Mesa, meanwhile, said that the DA’s BAC is now adjusting to a price per kilometer cost dependent on each area’s landscape, labor, and materials costing.

“If it is in an island, of course it will have an additional cost and they will not be uniform. Previously, the price is uniform at P15 million per kilometer. That cannot be as you can already see problems such as when an area is a flatland, you will not need to spend that much,” the DA official said.

De Mesa reiterated that there will be no delay in implementation of FMRs since the validity of the budget is two years. —VAL, GMA News