Still, Pangasinenses urged to eat less rice
NFA ASSURES SUFFICIENT SUPPLY
INSTEAD of rice, Pangasinenses should learn to consume other food staples to help attain the country’s goal to become self-sufficient in rice.
“We encourage the consumption of alternatives, so we can decrease our consumption of rice,” said Dalisay Moya, officer-in-charge at the Office of the Provincial Agriculturalist (OPAg) during the KBP Forum last July 3, 2014.
She urged families to eat alternative staples that are even more nutritious than rice like corn, banana, sweet potato, and cassava and encouraged households to plant any of these in their backyards.
Moya pointed out that the country only reached about 96-97 percent rice self-sufficiency in 2013.
While Pangasinan has consistently maintained rice surplus despite the occurrence of calamities, much of its surplus are distributed across the country.
Pangasinan also remains the major supplier of yellow corn, mango, onion, sweet potato, and tomato in the region and in the country.
SUFFICIENT RESERVE
Juliet Orias, assistant provincial manager of National Food Authority (NFA) in western Pangasinan, told local reporters during the same forum that the agency has 32,000 bags of rice available for distribution.
Next week, it expects the delivery of another 320,000 bags of Vietnam rice f imported by the government as buffer stock during the lean months while the NFA’s eastern Pangasinan office is also expecting 184,000 bags of rice to beef up their buffer stock.
Meanwhile, Dionisio Rivera, administrative officer of NFA eastern Pangasinan, noted that the gap between price of commercial and NFA rice is such that people line up for cheaper NFA rice but of similar quality, Rivera said.
NFA allocates already 40 bags a week each to its 129 outlets in 22 towns and one city in eastern Pangasinan.
In western Pangasinan, depending on the size of an outlet, NFA lallocates 75 bags weekly each for bigger outlets. – Johanne R. Macob and Tita Roces
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