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AN
increased food production program that can be continued
year to year, particularly on rice, and not the
government’s one-time subsidy program to allow poor
families to buy subsidized rice, is the answer to the
rice crisis.
This is
the view of Alghassim Wurie, deputy country director of
the United Nations World Food Program (WFP). He asserted
that the global food-price crunch has a strong impact on
the Philippines because it heavily relies on rice
imports—an average of 2 million tons every year.
He said
the Philippines has a potential to address fully its
increasing food requirements if the government will
implement sustainable programs that include increasing
food production.
“The
one-time subsidy on rice through the cards being
provided by the social welfare office is fine,” said
Wurie in an interview at the sidelines of the Ramon
Magsaysay Essay Competition forum held Thursday in
Manila. “But the question is—is it sustainable and how
can it be implemented effectively to avert hunger?”
He was,
however, pleased to note the worsening hunger in the
Philippines, especially in Mindanao, where he has been
working to help reduce hunger, is not about to lead to
violence. “This is only happening in Haiti and some
African states. Every country has a culture on food. I
don’t think Filipinos will resort to violent [means] for
lack of food reasons. I believe it is not in the culture
of the Filipinos.”
Wurie
added that subsidized rice pegged at P18.25 a kilo
should also be implemented in many key provinces where
there is rampant hunger, especially in the provinces of
Sultan Kudarat, Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao.
He
reiterated subsidies are only emergency Band-Aid
solutions and that “government should review its current
policy framework and include sustainable solutions on
increasing food production.”
He meets
with key government officials Friday to assess the
impact of Typhoon Frank on food production in devastated
provinces, especially in the Visayas, and “on what is
needed and what can be done [by both] the government and
the UN.”
The WPF
is also actively helping push the peace process with the
Moro Islamic Liberation Front. “Peace can be attained
by providing dividends in the form of livelihood….
Because these people [affected by conflict] have lost
their livelihood, their homes and continue to live in
hunger. By bringing food to them we address conflict
because poverty leads to conflict.”
The WFP
mainly focuses its programs in addressing hunger in the
provinces of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao and Sultan
Kudarat, where, he said, one of three children drop out
of primary school due to hunger and 38 percent of
children are malnourished. |
