DA: PH still needs around 60,000 km of farm-to-market roads

The Philippines still has a backlog of around 60,000 kilometers of farm-to-market Road (FMR) projects, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said on Saturday.

In a dzBB interview, DA spokesperson Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa said that at the current funding level, addressing the FMR backlog would take the agency about 20 years.

“Yung total na nasa FMR network plan natin is 130,000 kilometers. Yung nagawa na, nasa 70,000 kilometers. Konti lang naman yung napopondohan at yung iba diyan, paunti-unti ang gawa,” de Mesa said.

(Our total FMR network plan is 130,000 kilometres. About 70,000 kilometres have already been completed. Only a few projects receive funding, and some are implemented gradually.)

De Mesa also said that of the roughly 4,000 FMR projects constructed from 2021 to 2025, only seven were identified as “ghost projects,” although some roads were found to be substandard and in need of repair.

He noted that one of the major challenges in FMR construction was a funding mismatch caused by the Department of Public Works and Highways’ (DPWH) previous practice of applying uniform per-kilometer cost estimates, regardless of terrain and location.

“May minimum width, may shoulder, may minimum thickness. Depende rin sa lugar kung flood plains o bundok… Magbabago ang presyo kapag nasa probinsya o isla ka, lalo na kung malayo ang aggregates," Domingo said.

(There are minimum requirements for width, shoulders, and thickness, and costs vary depending on whether the area is a flood plain, mountainous, or located in a province or island where materials are sourced farther away.)

"Pero standard ang cost ng DPWH, regardless of condition. Doon nagkakaroon ng problems (However, DPWH applies standard costs regardless of conditions, which is where problems arise),” he said.

Now, the actual site conditions would need to be taken into account, he said.

FMRs are designed to link agriculture and fisheries production areas, coastal landing sites, and post-harvest facilities to markets and major highways.

These roads are intended to reduce transport and production costs for farmers, enabling them to earn higher prices and increase their incomes.

The standard cost for FMRs set by the DPWH is typically around P15,000 per meter and may be as low as P10,000 per meter, depending on conditions.

Under the 2026 National Expenditure Program (NEP), P33 billion has been allocated for FMR projects.

The DA has drawn the ire of lawmakers for supposedly submitting a revised list of FMR projects worth P8.9 billion on December 15, shortly after its initial budget had already been approved, tantamount to a budget insertion.

During the deliberations of the 2026 national budget, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian flagged P10.3 billion-worth of FMR projects built in 2023 and 2024 that were found to be overpriced.—MCG, GMA Integrated News