Gov. Yap assured anew Bohol’s sufficient food supply
Gov. Art C. Yap has assured anew the Boholanosthat the province of Bohol has sufficient food supply.
Gov. Yap issued the statement amid speculations that food supplies might be affected by Covid-19 pandemic.
The governor said that based on the gathered data from the Office of the Provincial Government (OPA) and National Food Authority (NFA), the food supplies in Bohol are safe.
Assistant Provincial Agriculturist Larry M. Pamugas bared that based on the weekly prices monitoring of agri-commodities at the public wet markets and malls conducted by the OPA staff, there are no signs that the supplies are dwindling.
Pamugas reported that prices of agri-commodities remain stable and within the suggested price ceilings set by the Provincial Government of Bohol (PGBh) and the Department of Agriculture (DA) in the time of implementation of price freeze law.
He said that well-milled rice can be bought at P40-44 per kilogram (/kg.), regular milled (P38-43/kg.), corn grits at P36-38/ kg., while prices of other commodities are still stable.
The Assistant Provincial Agriculturist said that we can expect more supplies in the coming months as the wet cropping season has already been started since last month and because of frequent rains most of the farmers have planted the agricultural plants that augment the supply.
Pamugas also reported the increasing production of vegetables in Bohol relatively keeping prices low in the markets.
He said that since Bohol was under community quarantine the vegetable seed distribution programs of the PGBh through OPA has been strengthened and has encouraged Boholanos affected by the quarantine to engage in planting vegetables or backyard gardening.
National Food Authority Information Officer Joel Lim said that there is no problem regarding supply of NFA rice in the province of Bohol.
Lim said that based on the last stock inventory there are 16,000 bags of NFA rice at their bodega in Tagbilaran City.
However, he clarified that this number of sacks have been intended only for relief operations by the Local Government Units (LGUs) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) of which every LGU has been allocated at 200 bags at P1,250 per sack.
The NFA information officer bared that to date they could not buy palay on their procurement program because of the high prices offered by rice traders to the Boholano farmers at P23-25 per kg. which is according to him beneficial to farmers considering the government support price of palay is only P19/kg.
He said that on the event that the 16,000 would be depleted they can request immediately for shipment from Cebu NFA bodega which still has 110,000 bags allocation until the end of December for Bohol.
With the sufficient stocks of commercial and NFA rice in Bohol, the Boholanos need not to worry about the food supplies in the province, Lim remarked. (AtoyCosap)
SUFFICIENT FOOD SUPPLY.Gov. Art C. Yap assures the Boholanos that the province has sufficient supply of foods as the provincial government gets the assurance from National Food Authority (NFA) and the local rice traders the sufficient stocks at their bodegas. Photo by Alfredo C. Amora, Jr., OPA staff
