DA: Enough food supply until end of the year

MANILA, Philippines — There is sufficient food supply until the end of this year despite mobility restrictions due to community quarantines, the Department of Agriculture (DA) has assured the public.

“We assure our countrymen that we will have enough food on our table during the rest of the year,” Agriculture Secretary William Dar said during a virtual meeting of the Task Group on Food Security of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases on Friday.

“Based on our inventory and projections, the food supply situation remains on the optimistic side even as we are under enhanced community quarantine or general community quarantine status,” Dar said.

The DA said the yearend stock of rice is good for 75 days. The agency said it aims to produce another record harvest of 20.4 million metric tons of palay this year, which is one million MT higher compared to last year’s bumper yield.

Dar said the supply situation for other major food commodities, such as vegetables, chicken and fish, is also “favorable.”

“The DA, in strong partnerships with farmers and fishers groups, local government units and the private sector, will continue to implement programs and initiatives to further boost food production,” he said.

Dar reiterated his call for DA regional field offices to ensure the continuous delivery of surplus farm, livestock and fishery products to the National Capital Region-Plus bubble through farmers cooperatives and associations as well as Kadiwa outlets.

He appealed to the Philippine National Police and local government units to ensure unhampered movement of farmers, fishers and other essential workers in the food value chain.

He said the DA is cooperating with agri-fishery industry stakeholders in implementing measures to manage the supply and prices of basic food items in a bid to address its impact on inflation.

“These include the temporary reduction of tariffs and continued provision of assistance to ASF (African swine fever)-affected hog raisers and pork sellers,” Dar said.