EDITORIAL - Food security

This month, the graduating elementary and high school students include over a million beneficiaries of the government’s conditional cash transfer or Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program. The so-called 4Ps will be expanded in line with the implementation of the K to 12.

Ensuring that children will not drop out of school is one of the conditions for receiving cash grants under the 4Ps. This year’s graduating batch includes 863,046 4Ps beneficiaries in public elementary schools and 333,673 in high school, indicating the achievement of one of the program’s objectives.

Studies have shown, however, that the benefits from the cash transfer program are being eroded by food inflation. Economic managers have also blamed high food prices for the increased poverty incidence in 2014.

Prices of the nation’s staple, rice, have not gone down from record highs, despite abundant harvests that made the administration believe the country would become a rice exporter last year. Logistics problems due to congestion in the Port of Manila have also pushed up prices of goods including food items. Social welfare officials said poor access to food supplies also pushes up prices.

Social welfare officials are planning to increase the cash grants under the 4Ps to address the problem. Doleouts, however, can only go so far. Addressing the causes of high food prices is the enduring solution. This includes stopping smuggling, hoarding and cartel operations in the rice industry. It also includes improving or building more roads so markets are accessible even to poor families in rural areas.

There’s a wide room for increasing agricultural production. The country is lagging behind several of its Southeast Asian neighbors in producing not only rice but also many other crops. Countries such as Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam beat the Philippines many years ago in exporting agricultural and aquaculture products. The Philippines had to play catchup even in the export of coconut cream and juice, which the country has in abundance, and special varieties of highland rice. Local coffee production is just starting to take off.

Higher cash grants will be welcomed by the 4Ps beneficiaries, who belong to the poorest of the poor. But the program must be accompanied by intensified efforts to boost food production and improve supply networks. The ultimate aim must be to enhance national food security.