Sunday, July 27, 2008 UN told to set up food stockpile program
AGRICULTURE Secretary Arthur Yap has asked the United Nations (UN) to set up either a regional or a global food stockpile program to help avert soaring food prices in the global landscape.
The program will also prevent violent incidents especially in impoverished countries affected by the rising prices of basic commodities.
Yap said the UN's World Food Program (WFP) should put up a "scheme" that would stabilize the world food supply, saying that the UN agency has the credibility and the track record to manage such program.
"WFP should set up a food stockpile. They should be given a shot at managing food stock piles all over the world," he said during last Friday's media forum in Greenhills, San Juan.
The agriculture chief said it is about time to put in place global food stockpiles where "we can draw food steadily" especially in time of food crisis.
"If there is such a system in place, there would be no panic. It would take the speculative aspect out of the situation," Yap said.
He added that global food crisis fired up violent food riots in the world's poorest countries, including countries in Africa, Haiti and other parts of the globe.
For his part, WFP country director Stephen Anderson said the Philippine government's proposal will be given due consideration by the UN.
Anderson said the WFP is "looking at different ways" to address the continuous rise of food prices in the global scene and is in constant touch with the National Government and even non-government organizations to remedy the current situation.
He cited that even the powerful G8 countries (US, Britain, France, Canada, Italy, Japan and Russia) as well as the International Food Policy Institute raised the same proposal during their recent Hokkaido meeting.
"The prices remain volatile and the proposal merits some consideration because everyone is going after the same food stockpile. It can be useful in averting a big crisis. Global lessons can be learned," Anderson said.
UN records showed that the prices of food rose more than 200 percent from 1998.
This may cause an increase in the number of about 854 million undernourished people worldwide today.
Another 100 million are classified as poor and hungry people.
In the Philippines, the price of rice, the basic staple, has increased by more than 40 percent since January while rice self-sufficiency reached only 85 percent of the total requirements.
The country, which hosts the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), is the world largest rice importer taking in about 2.4 million metric tons for this year alone.
The UN said a 10 percent increase in the price of rice would mean an additional 660,000 Filipinos added to the roll of poverty while a similar increase in fuel prices means an additional 160,000 poor people.
A survey by the pollster firm Social Weather Station (SWS) showed that hunger incidence in the country reached 16.3 percent in the second quarter of the year upped from the 10-year average of 12.1 percent. (AH/Sunnex)
