The Agriculture Department said the country has adequate supply of rice throughout the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine period.
Agriculture Secretary William Dar said the country would have a comfortable rice supply for the next 84 days, including the projected increase from the implementation of the “Plant, Plant, Plant” program, or Ahon Lahat, Pagkaing Sapat Kontra Covid-19.
“We earlier said that we have rice supply for the country good for 75 days. With the implementation of the ‘Plant, Plant, Plant’ program, we are optimistic to produce an additional 9-day supply going into the lean months of July to September,” Dar said.
The agency said the rice supply would be sufficient because of the expected harvest from the main wet season and import arrivals based on the issued sanitary and phytosanitary import clearances.
It said by end-2020, the country would have a rice inventory of 18 million metric tons, 18 percent more than the annual demand of 14.67 million MT of rice.
“At a conservative assumption of 70 percent adoption rate of the ‘Plant, Plant, Plant’ program interventions on rice, we can produce an additional 1.3 million MT. Add that to our projected local production and imports with SPSICs of 1.86 million MT, we will have a year-end stock good for more than three months,” he said.
The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases already approved the P8.5-billion fund for the Rice Resiliency Project under the ‘Plant, Plant, Plant’ program.
The RRP aims to boost palay production to 22.12 million MT, equivalent to 13.51 million MT of rice by the end of 2020.
Meanwhile, the Agriculture Department extended the validity of all issued “food pass” stickers and related documents as the government added two more weeks to the lockdown period until April 30, 2020.
“We immediately issued Memorandum Circular No. 11, on April 14, 2020, extending the legitimacy of the ‘food passes’ we issued through our Agribusiness Marketing and Assistance Service to suppliers and truckers of food, rice, vegetables, fruits, meat and processed products, as well as farm, fishery and livestock inputs, raw materials and equipment,” said Dar.
“The extension aims to ensure the seamless and smooth transport of food, cargoes, and agri-fishery inputs essential to food production and processing, including the movement of our frontliners — farmers, fishers, and workers in food processing facilities across the country,” he said.
This means that all food passes issued on March 18 and succeeding days remain valid until April 30, allowing trucks and cargo vehicles to pass through quarantine checkpoints as long as proper identification and other required documents are presented.
“We are calling on all regional field offices to coordinate with their respective local government units, including the Philippine National Police to ensure that the extension will be honored at all checkpoints nationwide,” Dar said.
The department has issued 73,189 food passes.