Laying down strategies to address food adequacy amidst the crisis that the country is facing due to the impact of Covid-19 in the agri-fishery sector, officers and members of the Food Resiliency Task Force of the Department of Agriculture met via Tele Conferencing yesterday with no less than Secretary William Dar at the forefront.

Focusing the three major components of the Food Resiliency Plan that revolves around the Quick Response Measures, Enhancing the KADIWA ni Ani at Kita and the ALPAS or the Ahon Lahat, Pagkaing Sapat Kontra COVID-19 Program, the tele-meeting served as an avenue for the DA officials at the national and regional levels to craft vital solutions if only to carry out the DA’s Food Resiliency Plan’s three major objectives on food availability, food accessibility, food affordability or price stability.

On the food availability objectives, the Task Force has agreed that there shall be no impediment of farming and fishing activities, so with the livestock and poultry raising to make food available at all times.

Responding to reports that movement of trucks and cargoes carrying food supply were hampered especially in barangay checkpoints or interior roads, the Task Force decided to continually coordinate with the Philippine National Police through the Department of the Interior and Local Government for the removal of these checkpoints while DA shall continue issuing IDs for all critical agribusiness workers for a non-stop food supply-chain system.

On the third objective on food affordability or price stability, the Task Force is one in saying that price of basic commodities will not only be monitored but strict enforcement is also a must. In doing so, the Regional Offices are tasked to re-activate their Regional and Provincial Price Coordinating Council and make further analysis on the supply and demand in every region where prices of commodities must be specified per province and per city. Upon the recommendation of the Council, the approved prices shall be imposed by the province or the cities.

To establish the integrity of data in the sector, Sec. Dar called on all the Banner Program Coordinators to make their manual of operations on the data collection and integration prior to setting up the data management system of the agency. In addition, the regions shall be hiring two additional staff that will monitor the price of the commodities in the market using the last two months prevailing price as the basis.

Other than these doable moves, the DA will likewise fast track the social amelioration program for farmers and fisherfolk and make available the lists of beneficiaries through the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture (RSBSA) until April 7 to avoid delaying the release of cash assistance for farmers and fisherfolk.

Meanwhile, introducing the Enhanced KADIWA ni Ani at Kita marketing strategy and the Rice Resiliency Program as a component of the ALPAS konta Covid-19 or the Plant, Plant, Plant Program, Sec. Dar asked the Regional Directors to re-focus and re-align their budgets and to complement efforts with the Local Government Units to increase the food sufficiency level in the country.