DSWD, DA may take on National Food Authority's tasks

The National Food Authority may no longer undertake the role of providing subsidized rice to the poor as the Department of Social Welfare and Development would take on the task, a Cabinet official said over the weekend. Providing subsidized rice to poor consumers may now be DSWD's task, which will be coursed through its conditional cash transfer program, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said. Abad said the DSWD is better positioned to identify and directly reach indigent households because it uses an information management system that identifies who and where the poor are. Citing a World Bank study, Abad said most poor households do not benefit much from the NFA rice program. In its report, the multilateral lender noted that in the old system, only 31 percent of the subsidized rice goes to the poorest of households. As part of the proposed reforms, the regulation of rice trades will be transferred to the Department of Agriculture (DA), Abad said. According to him, the DA can properly regulate rice traders because it is "folly to think" that the state-owned NFA could function both as a regulator and as a trader. Abad pointed out that the transfer of functions will allow the NFA to "focus on its core food security functions" such as the procurement of rice from poor farmers and the management of a buffer stock. Moreover, he said President Benigno Aquino III has directed the private sector to play a great role in the importation of rice. The Aquino administration has been looking for ways to reform the NFA, which has incurred debts amounting P171 billion as of end-2009, from roughly P43 billion in 2003. — JE/LBG, GMANews.TV