DA orders plan to ensure enough food in Metro Manila
Following President Rodrigo Duterte's declaration of the State of Public Health Emergency because of the threat of 2019 coronavirus disease, Agriculture Secretary William Dar ordered the crafting of a plan to ensure availability of food in the country, especially in Metro Manila.
Assistant Secretary Noel Reyes, Department of Agriculture (DA) spokesman said Dar ordered strategic positioning of food supplies, including rice, to ensure food sufficiency as a pre-emptive intervention should COVID-19 outbreak disrupts food supply in Metro Manila.
“Let’s have a plan on how to sustain the food supply for Metro Manila initially, and the whole country, eventually,” Dar said.
“You have to look at various scenarios. Let us plan proactively and food supply will always be one of those that needs to be properly managed,” he added.
Aside from rice, Dar added that "basic commodities including vegetables, fruits, eggs, fish, pork, among others should also be pre-positioned and be available for immediate deployment to the public."
“We are anticipating something that might cause the disruption of food supply. Strategically positioning means ensuring that supply is available and enough. Do we have enough supply of rice in Metro Manila say, for the next one month?” Dar said.
Reyes said Dar reported that the country has sufficient rice inventory, which is good for 80 days. Dar also assured the public of sufficient food supply as the outbreak persists.
National Food Authority (NFA) Administrator Judy Carol Dansal assures it has sufficient rice inventory in the National Capital Region (NCR), even in case of an emergency situation or possible lockdown due to COVID-19.
“We have 455,000 bags of rice in Metro Manila. This is good for 40 days, at 10 percent market participation. Of course, there are still rice stocks in the households and the commercial sector, which comprise the great portion of rice stocks in the market,” Dansal said.
NFA Public Affairs Director Angel Imperial Jr. said "the continuing transfer of 2,224,120 bags (111,206 MT) of rice to NCR from the nearby rice-producing regions is also being fast-tracked".
"This is to ensure the rice sufficiency level of NCR at all times. NCR will receive 311,920 bags (15,596 metric tons) from Region 01; 1,000,000 bags (50,000 metric tons) from Region 2; and 912,200 bags (45,610 metric tons from Region 3," he said.
"The total government rice stocks is 9.636 million bags or 481,800 metric tons. This is equivalent to 14.5-day rice consumption requirement of the whole country at 661,930 bags. They are stored in different strategically located warehouses in all provinces," he added.
Dansal added that for 2020, "the NFA has bought 1,734,230 bags (86,711 metric tons) of palay from farmers and farmers’ coops and associations. This is 124 percent accomplishment of the 1,399,000 bags target for January and February. For the whole of 2020, the NFA aims to locally buy 15,440,000 bags of palay."
Imperial noted "RA 11203 mandates the NFA to maintain a sufficient level of rice buffer stocks to be sourced locally, intended primarily for emergency/calamity operations".
"NFA continues to sell rice through disaster/relief/calamity operations response outlets, private authorized distributors, and other government agencies," he said. Robina Asido/DMS
