Press Release
April 2, 2008

Malnutrition to worsen if rice crisis not averted - Loren
Filipinos already undernourished to cut down on dietary intake

Senator Loren Legarda warned today that the acute problem of malnutrition in the Philippines will surely be aggravated by the skyrocketing prices and tight supply of rice and other cereals in the market.

In drawing the conclusion, Legarda noted that as per the 2nd Philippines Progress Report on the Millennium Development Goals, the proportion of Filipino households with per capita intake below 100 percent of dietary energy requirement was already very high at 56.9 percent.

She also pointed out that 27.6 percent of preschool children were found to be underweight, with 11 out of 17 regions recording malnutrition prevalence rates higher than the average in the report.

"What these figures tell us is that cutting down on dietary intake, especially rice, is not an option for us Filipinos since over half of our population is already undernourished and nearly 28 percent of our preschool children underweight," said Legarda.

Legarda made the remark in reaction to suggestions made by government officials for Filipinos to cut down on rice consumption in the face of the looming rice shortage.

"As it is, the high prices of rice and other cereals in the market today are surely forcing many households to reduce consumption. But the first to suffer from this move would be our children and the elderly," she said.

The senator stressed that undernourished children suffer from stunted physical, emotional and mental growth, with those already going to school having difficulties in their studies.

The elderly, on the other hand, need the right amount of sustenance to combat degenerative diseases and to comfortably live the remaining years of their lives.

Legarda said that the 57-day rice buffer does not give comfort to Filipinos who consider it as their staple food. She also noted with concern reports that the price of corn has also tripled of late, while that of flour used to make bread has also gone up.

"Past surveys have shown that many Filipinos are going hungry and finding that they were better off years ago than they are today. The prevalence of hunger and poverty lay bare government's claim that the economy has improved by leaps and bounds," she said.

According to the MDG report, 13.8 percent of the population were living below the subsistence food threshold and were considered "food poor." The subsistence level was estimated at P8,134 per capita per year or P3,389 per month for a family of five.

But Legarda said no one can live decently on the subsistence level being used by the government.

"They bring down the poverty threshold level in order to paint a distorted picture that many Filipinos are living above the poverty line. The real numbers on poverty, hunger and malnutrition, I'm afraid, are more worrying."

Legarda said that the present rice shortage should "jolt us to our senses" to focus on meeting food security through local production and improving agricultural outputs, than by relying in importations.

"We must work to increase agricultural yield through government support to farmers. At the same time, we should tap idle arable lands so we can increase total land area devoted to agriculture," she said.

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