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AGRICULTURE Secretary Arthur Yap is proposing the creation of a
global reserve or stockpile of food for members of United Nations,
as he called on donor-countries and multilateral agencies to support
international actions to stabilize food markets in the light of an
unprecedented spiral in prices across the world.
Yap said contributions to the global food
stockpile could come from all member-nations as well as from
interested donor-countries and multilateral financing institutions,
like the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and other regional
development banks, and the International Fund for Agricultural
Development.
Speaking before the High Level Conference on
World Food Security hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization
in Rome, Yap said the food reserves could be managed by an
appropriate UN agency like the World Food Program.
Yap said for the Philippines, rice should be
first on the list of the proposed global reserve inventories because
it is the staple of almost three billion people.
He added that the proposed global reserves could
be expanded later, to include other staples such as wheat and corn.
“Our thinking is that this stockpile would
consist initially of rice. It could be expanded subsequently to
include other staples like wheat and maize [corn], if the initial
rice model proves viable,” Yap said.
He said this proposal would benefit both deficit
and surplus countries because a price band would be maintained and,
which, at the low end, would serve to protect producers in exporting
countries from falling prices.
The high end of the band would shield consumers
of importing countries from the impact of soaring prices.
At Malacañang, Executive Secretary Eduardo
Ermita said Wednesday the government will be giving coupons worth
P1,500 to Filipino farmers for buying fertilizers to ease their
burden from the spiraling fuel and food prices.
Of the total amount, P500 would come from the
Department of Agriculture, while the remainder would be sourced from
the internal revenue allotment of local government units
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-- Ira Karen Apanay with Angelo Samonte
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