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The government is taking right steps to prevent a
possible food crisis, an official of the United Nations’ World
Food Programme said Friday.
“Initially, we wouldn’t have
been so concerned about the Philippines because it already is
responsible for growing internally about 85 percent of the food that
it consumes,” Valerie Guarnieri, the World Food Programme’s
country director in the Philippines, told local media.
Guarnieri said the government can
fill up the remaining 15 percent by just making “extra efforts”
to get commitments from other countries to supply the food needed by
the country, cable news network ANC reported.
She added that securing rice
imports is one of the two best ways to prevent a food crisis in the
country, which she said is being “aggressively” pursued by the
government.
President Gloria Arroyo had
announced that Vietnam has committed to sell to the Philippines 1.5
million metric tons of rice, which she said will augment the
country’s rice supply starting June.
President Arroyo had also said
that she plans to convince Thailand to sell additional rice to
Manila.
The Philippine government has
also started the process of providing rice stubs to poor Filipinos,
as well as other measures to mitigate the rising prices of rice.
The National Food Authority has
started selling rice at P18.50 (about $0.44) per kilo in poor
communities.
The other way to mitigate the
increasing prices of staple needs is to provide food subsidies to
the poor, which, Guarnieri said, is already being done by the
government.
The World Food Programme official
added that the increasing prices of rice, and its possible
unavailability in the world market can turn out as a positive
development for Philippine agriculture, especially for the farmers.
“Countries, including the
Philippines, would have to “reemphasize the need to look also at
local production” now that there is a looming world food crisis,
she said.
In the Philippines, Guarnieri
added, the government should focus on measures on how to improve
measures that would not only increase food security, but also
“benefit poor farmers.”
--Xinhua
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