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TO harmonize all food security initiatives and craft a
comprehensive, three-year blueprint for rural development, the
Department of Agriculture will hold the National Food Summit on
Friday at Clark, Pampanga, where more than 1,000 representatives
from the government and the private sector are expected to attend.
Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said the
department’s regional field units and local government units are
expected to take part in the summit along with stakeholders from the
agriculture and fisheries sector.
Yap said one major objective of the summit is to
find ways of better harnessing local governments and the private
sector as effective junction points for the various national
government initiatives concerning food security and job creation.
President Gloria Arroyo will be the guest of
honor and keynote speaker of the summit, which will be held at the
Fontana Leisure Park and Casino in Pampanga.
The Agriculture department invited to the summit
representatives from farmer and fisherfolk organizations, industry
and professional associations, sectoral groups like consumers and
transport organizations, and academe and regional development
councils.
“We will harness the support and consolidate
the inputs of all these sectors with the end in view of unifying our
initiatives to guarantee food security and draw up a comprehensive
program that will serve as the Arroyo administration’s blueprint
for rural development from now till 2010,” Yap said.
In January, President Arroyo instructed the
Agriculture department to organize the national food summit—or
long before the current market distortions in rice hit the
country—in sync with her administration’s “Pagkain sa Bawat
Mesa, Negosyo sa Sakahan—Laban sa Kahirapan” goals.
The comprehensive program to be drawn up during
the summit will buttress the Agriculture department’s five-pillar
growth agenda that focuses on higher spending on irrigation, rural
infrastructure, postharvest facilities, research and development,
extension work, rural credit facilitation, and finding more local
and foreign markets for Philippine products.
Among the main topics that will be extensively
discussed during the summit are the ongoing initiatives being
undertaken by the government, in tandem with other sectors, to
guarantee the stable flow and adequate stocks of rice, corn and
other commodities in the face of tightening supplies and soaring
commodity prices in the world market.
Yap said that the central areas of concern in
the coming summit comprise five commodity clusters, namely: rice;
corn; high-value commercial crops; livestock and poultry; and
fisheries and aquaculture.
In preparation for the summit, the Agriculture
department hosted a series of regional and sectoral consultations
with local chief executives and private sector stakeholders in
Quezon City , Pampanga, Cebu City, Cagayan de Oro and Davao City
from February to March.
Yap said “these regional consultations were
necessary for the department to consolidate the main
agriculture-related issues and concerns at the national and local
levels, and then identify the government intervention measures plus
food-sufficiency initiatives and budgets needed to keep the farm
sector on its high-growth course in the medium term.”
-- Ira Karen Apanay
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