Low tariffs, nutrition goals anchor food insecurity fight

THE Marcos Jr. administration seeks to eliminate severe food insecurity in the Philippines starting next year through various mechanisms that include lowering of tariffs on key commodities in the short-term period.

The Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2023-2028 revealed that the national government targets to increase the country’s food security level in the next six years from the baseline score of 59.3.

In fact, the economic blueprint indicated that the government would eradicate severe food insecurity in the country starting this year and would remain zero until 2028. The country’s food security in 2021 stood at 2 percent.

The PDP also showed that moderate to severe food insecurity, estimated at 33.4 percent in 2021, would continuously decline over the next six years until it falls to 24.4 percent by 2028.

“To ensure food security and proper nutrition of Filipino families and their members, concerted efforts of the government, private sector, and other stakeholders will be geared toward [a] attaining sufficient and stable supply of food commodities; [b] expanding access of consumers to affordable, safe, and nutritious food; and [c] improving nutrition across all ages,” the PDP 2023-2028 read.

“Such strategies will help reduce food insecurity and end hunger by providing accessible and affordable safe and nutritious food for all Filipinos, at all times,” it added.

Part of the measures of the government to achieve lower food insecurity in the country is ensuring sufficient and stable supply of food commodities, based on the PDP.

“Achieving sufficient and stable food supply requires intensified interventions to enhance agriculture and fisheries productivity and resilience,” it said.

“The interventions to be pursued include the [a] diversification of production to maximize the use of resources; [b] consolidation and clustering of farms to take advantage of economies of scale; and [c] adoption of improved technologies to modernize the sector,” it added.

The PDP stipulated that the government would continue to reduce tariffs on key commodities as a “temporary” and “short-term” measure to diversify the food supply of the country through imports.

“To assess the necessity of such measures, the government shall proactively monitor and enhance supply-demand forecasting of key commodities [e.g., rice, meat, fish, vegetables, and sugar] to anticipate possible shortages,” it said.

The national government would establish an “anticipatory mechanism” that would “facilitate the timely implementation of appropriate measures to enhance domestic supply and forestall the sudden or sharp uptick in domestic food prices.”

The Businessmirror earlier reported that the Philippines ranked 67th in the Global Food Security Index (GFSI) 2022, trailing behind half of its Asian peers as the country scored low in terms of food availability and adaptability to the impacts of climate change. (Related story: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2022/09/22/phl-trails-asian-peers-in-foodsecurity-index)

The GFSI index showed that the Philippines, which had an overall food security score of 59.3, placed 67th out of 113 countries included in the index by Economist Impact and Corteva Science.

In the Asia-pacific region, the Philippines ranked 13th out of 23 countries, behind Azerbaijan and Thailand. The GFSI index showed that the Philippines had a better food security score than

India (58.9), which placed 14th, and three Southeast Asian neighbors—myanmar (57.6), Cambodia (55.7) and Laos (53.1).

The GFSI index measures four aspects of a country’s food security, namely, food affordability, availability, quality and safety, and sustainability and adaptation.

The Philippines scored 71.5 in terms of food affordability, 55.2 in terms of availability, 65.3 in terms of quality and safety and 41.8 in terms of sustainability and adaptation.

Based on the 2021 Expanded National Nutrition Survey (ENNS), the prevalence of food insecurity nationwide was at 33.4 percent representing those who reduced their food consumption or skipped meals and 2 percent of this represent those who went on no food for one day or more. (Related story: https://businessmirror. com.ph/2022/11/15/surveyyoung-filipinos-suffer-foodinsecurity)

The Businessmirror earlier reported that over 75 million Filipinos are unable to purchase healthy food, and experts warned that the rising food costs may make it more difficult for consumers to access nutritious food. (Related story: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2022/07/11/7-in10-filipinos-cant-afford-nutritious-food-sofi-2022/)