More Pinoys may grow hungry - UN

March 28, 2008  --  Got something to say?
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More Filipinos could go hungry this year as the market price of rice soars out of reach of ordinary households, Valerie Guarnieri, WFP Country Director for the Philippines, said March 7. He said the Philippine government could end up spending more to subsidize prices of rice as world food prices go up. Rice sales in the Philippines are traditionally subsidized. The question will be whether the government will be able to maintain the current levels the lowest grade rice is sold at and/or increase it only marginally and at what cost because that would mean incurring further debt in order to maintain those low prices,” she told ABS-CBN News Channel.

The UN agency now provides food aid to about 1.1 million of the Philippines 90 million people. Guarnieri warned that the increase in food prices could lead to more hunger incidence in the country, particularly in Mindanao island where some of the countrys poorest provinces are located. She said that according to WFP research, 70 percent of total expenditures of a poor household in Mindanao goes to food.

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Posted by News Team | Filed Under Philippine News 

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