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Agriculture Undersecretary Jesus Emmanuel Paras has
placed the damage wrought by Typhoon Frank at P4.39 billion, which
estimate he stressed was based on preliminary data gathered by field
personnel of the Department of Agriculture (DA). Much of the damage,
he added, was done to agricultural production.
Frank, whose international
codename is Fengshen, cut a wide swathe of death and destruction
across Eastern Visayas, Western Visayas, Southern Tagalog and
Central Luzon—and spawned monsoon rains in Central and Western
Mindanao, which resulted in the inevitable floods and landslides.
These typhoon-hit regions grow rice, corn, vegetables and high-value
commercial crops, aside from fisheries and livestock.
Frank was just the first big
storm to ravage the archipelago, which every year is hit by an
average of 20 typhoons. The worst is yet to come, weathermen say.
Filipinos can take a measure of
comfort from the fact that the DA, under Secretary Arthur Yap,
already has in place several programs aimed at achieving food
security for the nation. To be sure, these measures were launched in
response to the global food crisis, which first rocked the
Philippines with the rice-price shock in March.
With scientists warning that the
world is not in a period of extreme weather events, the same
programs should help the country overcome the dire consequences of
our increasingly erratic climate—thanks to global warming.
Five-harvest plan
The Agriculture department has
adopted a five-harvest plan to make the country at least 98-percent
self-sufficient in rice in two years. The plan aims to boost total
paddy, or palay, output from a record 17.32 million metric tons this
year to even higher levels of 18.5 million MT in 2009 and 19.7
million MT in 2010.
Yap and other DA officials said
they are optimistic about hitting or even exceeding their 2008
target. The dry season output already hit 7.1 million MT with
standing crops in almost a tenth of all rice fields still awaiting
harvest.
The DA Rice Action Center last
week—before Frank lashed several rice-growing provinces—reported
that 7.12 million MT have been harvested from 1.77 million hectares,
or 91 percent of the total 1.94 million hectares planted to the dry
season crop.
With the National Food Authority
(NFA) contracting imports totaling 2.3 million MT, Yap said,
government warehouses will have rice inventories equivalent to 33
days’ supply—over double the NFA’s standard buffer stock of 15
days—during the traditional lean months of July to September.
With stocks remaining at
comfortable levels, the destruction wrought by Frank in several
rice-growing provinces has not triggered significant jumps in the
prices of the national staple.
Take the case of Bulacan. Before
the typhoon’s onslaught, wholesale prices of well-milled
commercial rice were monitored between P36 and P38 per kilo and
retailed between P37 and P39 per kilo.
Days after the typhoon left the
Philippines wholesale rice prices in Intercity Industrial Estate in
Bocaue, a major grain trading hub, were still selling at P35 to P37
per kilo, as reported by both provincial officials and grains
traders.
With the comfortable buffer
level, Yap said, the government can stabilize prices by engaging in
what he called “selective bombardment” of stocks wherever price
spikes occur. A few weeks back in Mindanao rice prices suddenly shot
up but eventually retreated after the NFA started flooding affected
areas like the cities of Davao and General Santos with more
government stocks.
Yap and other DA officials said
they are confident the government can address similar price
spikes—or even actual localized shortages—resulting from extreme
weather events.
Global reserve
Incidentally, Yap has proposed
the establishment of a global reserve or stockpile for rice, wheat,
corn and other basic staples as a way to rein in spiraling food
prices, which have afflicted many countries.
At the recent High Level
Conference on World Food Security hosted by the Food and Agriculture
Organization in Rome, Yap had also called on donor-countries and
multilateral agencies to support international action meant to
stabilize food markets.
Under Yap’s proposal,
contributions to this food reserve, which he said could be piloted
in Southeast Asia, would 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.
The food reserve could be managed
by an appropriate UN agency with a track record in administering
food reserves, like the World Food Program.
Rice should be first on the list
of the proposed global reserve inventories because it is the staple
consumed by almost three billion people, Yap said.
Rice has also been most prone
lately to sharp price fluctuations as a result of “a very thin
market” as only 5 percent to 7 percent of this cereal’s total
production is traded across the world. Current rice prices are 68
percent higher than year-ago levels and about 53 percent higher than
they were in January.
The proposed food reserve would
benefit both deficit and surplus countries because a price band will
be maintained, Yap said. At the low end, it will serve to protect
producers in exporting countries from falling prices. At other end,
it will help shield consumers of importing countries from the impact
of soaring prices.
dansoy26@yahoo.coma
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