Food prices and supply have remained stable despite the effects of El Niño on agriculture, Malacañang said on Sunday as it stressed that the government is doing its part to help farmers whose livelihoods were affected by the drought.
“Despite the El Niño phenomenon, rice prices remained lower than in the previous year— -1.7 percent in March from -2.0 percent in February—and have been declining consistently since October 2015,” Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr., said citing data from the National Economic and Development Authority.
“While drought usually entails low production leading to high agricultural product prices, inflation data show that prices of food, particularly rice, have been low and stable in the past months,” Coloma said quoting a statement from Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Emmanuel Esguerra.
President Benigno Aquino III has designated Neda as the head of El Niño Task Force in 2015. Seven provinces, five cities and 24 municipalities have been declared under state of calamity due to El Niño, allowing local government units to tap emergency funds to address the adverse effects of the prolonged dry spell.
“In fact for March 2016, despite the El Niño phenomenon, rice prices remained lower than in the previous year [-1.7 percent in March from -2.0 percent in February] and have been declining consistently since October 2015,” Esguerra said.
“Likewise, the price of vegetables, while remaining elevated since November 2015, has trended down after peaking in January 2016, declining by 2.9 percent in March 2016 from the previous month, for a total decline of 7.8 percent since the beginning of the year,” he said.
“Supply and buffer stock management is being done well with timely purchases. Moreover, despite the lack of water, there were no reported breakout of diseases and epidemic, though we do not discount that there could still be health issues in some places,” he said.
“The food inflation has been in check as borne out by hunger data from the Social Weather Stations conducted from December 5-8, 2015, the 2015 average hunger rate for that period at 13.4 percent, is the lowest annual average hunger rate since 2004,” Esguerra also said.
Through convening with other government agencies, the task force has established the Roadmap to Address the Impact of El Niño.
The roadmap is focused on three areas: food security, energy security, health and safety.