(Sa panahon ng Luzon-wide ECQ) IMBAK NA BIGAS SAPAT

MAY sapat na rice stocks para sa pangangailangan ng buong bansa sa panahon ng Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine dulot ng coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19).
“Sapat po ang ating supply ng bigas para sa Metro Manila at sa buong bansa. Nitong buwan ng Marso, mayroon po tayong rice inventory good for 75 days,” wika ni Agriculture Secretary William Dar.
Ayon kay Dar, ang bansa ay may kabuuang rice inventory na 2.661 million metric tons (MT), kasama na rito ang commercial, household at government stocks.
Sa kanyang panig, sinabi ni National Food Authority (NFA) Administrator Judy Carol Dansal na ang NFA sa kasalukuyan ay may imbak na 9.636 million bags o 481,800 MT, na katumbas ng 14 araw na pangangailangan ng bansa.
“Rice stocks include those bought from farmers during the last quarter of 2019,” ayon sa NFA.
Ang NFA rice ay ibinebenta sa halagang P25 kada kilo sa accredited retailers, institutions, local government units at government agencies.
Samantala, sinabi ni Dar na, “Currently, our priority is to serve the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the LGUs so they could include in food packs for their respective distribution.”
Sa panig ng NFA ay patuloy naman ito sa pagbili ng palay mula sa mga magsasaka para sa buffer stocking.
Para sa Enero at Pebrero 2020, bumili ito ng kabuuang 1,734,230 bags o 86,711 MT mula sa individual farmers, cooperatives at associations.
Ayon kay Dansal, para sa buong taon, target ng NFA na bumili ng 15.44 million bags, gamit ang regular P7-billion budget nito.
Sa kabilang dako, sinabi ni Dar na, “We are proposing to augment the NFA’s palay procurement fund by another P7 billion, as part of our proposed P31-billion food resiliency program, dubbed as Ahon Lahat, Pagkain Sapat or ALPAS Kontra COVID-19, which we also call ‘Plant, Plant, Plant Program or Agri 4Ps.'”
“In all, we have enough food for the next two months and we are enhancing other measures to ensure food security until the end of the year,” dagdag pa niya.

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