DA Budget Adds P31-B: More For Food Security, Or Food Sufficiency?

Yes, PH should now be emancipated from food sufficiency to food security!

The Department of Agriculture, DA, has good news: “IATF Approves P31-B Add’l Budget To Increase Food Sufficiency Level[1].” The IATF is the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, IATF-MEID. The news is that the approval was reached among the members of the IATF in a videoconference – via visual count, not simply physical. Beyond social distancing, as the Covid-19 quarantine requires.

It is also time to graduate from journalistic sufficiency to journalistic security! Of meanings.

Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie said:

We thank the IATF-MEID, led by Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, for approving our P31-billion supplemental budget to bankroll a national Plant, Plant, Plant Program during our teleconference on March 27.

The full name of the DA’s proposal – Plant, Plant, Plant Program, the Agri 4Ps – is deceptively simple and yet covers not only planting of crops, but also poultry & livestock, and fisheries. Crop covers rice, coconut & corn; poultry covers chickens; and livestock covers “small ruminants” (such as goats) – “fish” was not specified in the DA report. (To be correct, I suggest a new name: Raise, Raise, Raise, Raise; because you raise plants and animals – and spirits.)

The P31-B is now under consideration by President Rodrigo Duterte. Manong Willie says the Agri 4Ps is also referred to as “Ahon Lahat, Pagkaing Sapat (ALPAS) Kontra sa Covid-19.” Ahon is Tagalog for “safe out of the water,” lahat is “all,” pagkaing sapat is “enough food,” kontra is “against,” and Covid-19 is the coronavirus that is disrupting the world. Itself, alpas is significant; it means “break loose” – to break loose from insufficiency.

Sufficiency is different from Security.

Did I not tell you Manong Willie is an Ilocano genius? Without much ado, his P31-B supplemental agriculture budget is for Food Security, not Food Sufficiency. To rise from food insufficiency, you have to reach the level of food security. PH is food-sufficient if it can or does produce enough of its own; PH is food-secure if its farming produces enough funds to import the food that it does not produce. The added DA budget includes palay procurement, aid & recovery, insurance, social amelioration, upscaling of rolling stores for farm produce, poultry & livestock production, urban agriculture, and acquisition of protective personal equipment in relation to Covid-19.

Sufficient for Security!

To differentiate food sufficiency from food security is not only important but necessary not only in aggie journalism but more so in aggie management. I am sure Manong Willie knows that very well. After all, he was Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, based in India, for 15 years, from January 2000 to December 2014 – and food I’m sure was always on top of the table, literally and figuratively! (security image from Telappliant[2])

Aiming for Food Sufficiency? I wish you luck.
Aiming for Food Security? God bless you!
In food, PH should be more secure than sufficient!
“Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”@517

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[1] http://www.da.gov.ph/iatf-approves-p31-b-addl-budget-to-increase-food-sufficiency-level/?fbclid=IwAR1nOX3FIe2SDLf57U9HtMIZNr-vIQH3pu-OidWWap4FXOxbpYQpDkNsu-4

[2] https://www.telappliant.com/blog/improve-cyber-security/