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Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap on Saturday ordered the National
Food Authority (NFA) to intensify the distribution of
government-subsidized rice stocks in the country’s 12 highly
populated areas to help ongoing efforts to stabilize the staple’s
price and make affordably priced rice available to the “poorest of
the poor.”
Yap also said the Agriculture department is
teaming up with former Agriculture chiefs and other farm experts in
crafting a masterplan that will guarantee the stable supply of rice
and other food crops between now and 2010.
Yap said the areas where he ordered the NFA to
increase the distribution of government-subsidized rice sold at
P18.25 per kilo are Metro Manila, Baguio City, Lucena City,
Legaspi City, Albay, Tacloban City, Bacolod City, Cebu City,
Dumaguete City, Davao City, Cagayan de Oro, Zamboanga City and
General Santos City.
The NFA was directed
to closely coordinate with the Department of Social Welfare and
Development, local governments and faith-based sectors to ensure
that the “poorest of the poor” will be the first to buy NFA rice
at its stipulated price.
“We will intensify the distribution of NFA
rice in these 12 areas to help ensure that cheap rice reaches
the widest swath of the population where poor families reside,”
Yap said.
NFA Administrator Jessup Navarro said the agency
will begin increasing the distribution of government-subsidized rice
in the 12 identified areas within the week.
Food security plan
Yap also said a food production masterplan is
being formulated by the Agriculture department with experts from the
Philippine Rice Research Institute (Philrice) and the University of
the Philippines in Los Baños, along with the recently-formed
Eminent Persons Group, which was formed to help oversee the
implementation of Malacañang’s P43.7-billion package of
intervention measures for the country’s agriculture sector.
Among the members of the newly formed Eminent
Persons Group are former Agriculture secretaries Domingo Panganiban,
Carlos Dominguez, Robert Sebastian and Salvador Escudero 3rd; former
Agriculture Undersecretary Apolinario Bautista; former NFA
Administrator Gregorio Tan; Philrice Executive Director Leocadio
Sebastian; Dr. Emil Javier of the National Academy for Science and
Technology; Dr. Leo Gonzalez of Strive Foundation; and former
PhilRice Director Dr. Santiago Obien.
Panganiban is now head of the National
Anti-Poverty Commission, and known as the brains behind the highly
successful Masagana 99 rice program of the Marcos administration.
Escudero is now a Congressman.
“We are working on a masterplan for sustained
agricultural growth from now till 2010. Philippine agriculture is
not all rice, we have other sectors to protect,” Yap said.
The Agriculture secretary said that among the
measures that they are now studying is the expansion of the
government’s current subsidy program for seeds and fertilizers,
and the involvement of local governments in palay (unhusked)
production, particularly in the country’s 37 biggest palay-growing
provinces.
He said these were among the recommendations
made by the Eminent Persons Group during a meeting last Monday,
which discussed how to efficiently implement Malacañang’s
billion-peso package for the country’s food sector.
The creation of the group followed President
Gloria Arroyo’s announcement of her P43.7-billion package of
intervention measures to further boost farm productivity and cushion
the Philippines from the impact of the emerging global food crunch.
The package, which was unveiled at the National
Food Summit last April 4 and called “FIELDS,” will focus on
providing fertilizer, irrigation, education and training to farmers
and fisherfolk, loans, dryers and other postharvest facilities; and
the provision high-yielding and hybrid varieties of seeds.
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