Is Marcos admin’s P20/kilo rice push a response to failed food emergency?

rapplerdotcom

The Agriculture Department announces it will pilot a P20-per-kilo rice program in the Visayas region next week.  Full story: https://www.rappler.com/philippines/marcos-jr-administration-rice-program-response-food-emergency/

Transcript

00:00The Agriculture Department announces it will pilot a 20 peso per kilo rice program in the Visayas

00:06region next week. Agriculture Secretary Chu Laurel says the program will run until December

00:11and could be extended to February 2026, and after that, hopefully until 2028.

00:17There is no clear date yet for a nationwide rollout, but the department sees the Visayas

00:21pilot test as a way to work out the logistics. But a big factor why this is happening now,

00:26aside from the upcoming midterm elections, is that nearly three months after the food

00:30emergency was declared, the government is still struggling with full National Food Authority

00:35warehouses. They still need to clear out rice stocks to make space for the new harvest.

00:40While the government was dealing with 300 metric tons of rice during the Food Emergency Declaration,

00:45it is now contending with 358,000 metric tons. The Food Emergency Declaration enables the

00:51Agriculture Department to sell NFA rice stocks to local governments.

00:55However, only a few local governments availed of the low-priced NFA rice.

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