THE Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) has appointed a task group for food security led by the Department of Agriculture (DA).
IATF Resolution No. 25 authorized the formation of the Task Group on Food Security (TGFS). The group will address threats to the food supply during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak.
“Guided by the whole-of-nation approach, the TGFS will work toward easing uncertainties of our countrymen on the supply and movement of food from farm to table,” Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar said.
Resolution No. 25 revised a previous IATF resolution that created a food security sub-group under the task force’s technical working group on resource management.
Members of the TGFS include the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), the Department of Education (DepEd), the Department of Science and Technology (DoST), and the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).
“Ensuring food security should be at the forefront of our priorities along with ensuring the safety and health of our people. Again, we stand by our conviction that the threat of hunger is as real as the threat of COVID-19,” Mr. Dar said.
Meanwhile, the IATF also reported that stocks of food are sufficient until June.
According to data from the DA, the national rice supply is 18 million metric tons (MT), poultry 1.95 million MT, and pork 1.12 million MT.
“We will not run out of food commodities in markets. There is enough food in the country,” IATF Spokesperson and Cabinet Secretary Karlo Alexei B. Nograles said. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave
