El Niño relief efforts ‘fairly successful’ – NEDA

MANILA, Philippines – The government has been “fairly successful” in blunting the impact of El Niño phenomenon on domestic food supply and prices but recognizes there are still areas feeling the brunt of the dry spell, this was the assessment of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and NEDA director general Emmanuel Esguerra reported yesterday that as of March, prices and supplies of main food items, particularly rice, are kept in check. He noted rice prices have been declining steadily since October 2015 while prices of vegetables have been on the downtrend since the beginning of the year.

He attributed the present stability in food supply and prices to the provision of production support to farmers, timely importation and the imposition of price freeze in areas that declared a state of calamity.

“While drought usually entails low production leading to high agricultural product prices, inflation data show that prices of food, particularly rice, have been low and stable in the past months,” Esguerra said in a briefing at the NEDA central office.

As it is, the government still does not see an immediate need to import more rice for buffer stocking but at the same time, the state is not completely ruling out the need to import more of the staple this year.

Renan Dalisay, administrator of the National Food Authority (NFA), said the country still has sufficient rice supply, thanks to the prepositioning of imports last year and planting in December when the rains came.

The NFA Council approved in September last year the contract for the supply of 750,000 metric tons (MT) of rice to Thailand and Vietnam, arrival of which was completed last month. This was meant to beef up government stocks in anticipation of the strengthening El Niño.

“There is still no need for imports right now because of the incoming harvests but we are not completely ruling out the need for imports this year. But we need to time this,” he said.

The NFA, he said, has a standby authority this year to import 500,000 MT of rice through government-to-government procurement channels if the need is determined.

Esguerra noted a survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations in December 2015 showed the average hunger rate of 13.4 percent for 2015 is the lowest annual average hunger rate since 2004.

Moreover, hunger in Mindanao fell 8.7 percentage from 21.7 percent to 13 percent.  This brought the 2015 average Mindanao hunger rate to 15.8 percent, the lowest since the 13.3 percent annual average in 2005.

The El Niño task force, however, found out that 23 provinces in Mindanao are parched, having a 60 percent reduction in rainfall. These provinces include Cotabato, Zamboanga and parts of ARMM. Seven provinces have already been placed under a state of calamity: Isabela, Quirino, Bukidnon, Davao del Sur, Cotabato, Maguindanao and Basilan.