“The Department of Agriculture has ordered for an intensified rice distribution in the highly populated cities of Cebu and Dumaguete in Negros Oriental.
DA Secretary Arthur Yap ordered the National Food Authority recently to intensify distribution of government subsidized rice stocks in other highly populated areas.
Aside from Dumaguete and Cebu cities, the list includes Metro Manila, Baguio City, Lucena City, Legaspi City, Albay, Tacloban City, Bacolod City, Davao City, Cagayan de Oro City, Zamboanga City and General Santos City.
“We will intensify the distribution of NFA rice in these 12 areas to help ensure that cheap rice reaches the widest swath of the population where poor families reside,” Yap said.
The move was in accord with ongoing efforts to stabilize the prices of the staple.
He directed the NFA to closely coordinate with the Department of Social Welfare and Development, local government units and other communities to ensure that the poorest of the poor will be the first to buy NFA rice at P18.25 per kilo.
NFA administrator Jessup Navarro said the agency will begin increasing the distribution of cheap, government-subsidized rice in these areas within the week.
Yap also announced that the Department is teaming up with former DA chiefs and other farm experts to craft a master plan to guarantee the stable supply not only of rice but other food crops as well between now and 2010.
Yap said a food production master plan is being drawn up by the DA with experts from the Philippine Rice Research Institute and the University of the Philippines in Los Baños to help oversee the implementation of Malacañang’s P43.7-billion package of intervention measures for Philippine agriculture. – Ferliza C. Contratista/BRP