TINIYAK ng Department of Agriculture (DA) na tatagal pa ng 39 araw ang suplay ng bigas sa harap ng pananalasa ng Super Typhoon Egay.
Sa isang briefing, sinabi ni Agriculture Undersecretary Mercedita Sombilla na ipinatawag ni Pangulong Marcos ang mga opisyal ng DA para talakayin ang mga hakbang para matiyak na walang magiging kakulangan sa suplay ng bigas.
“The President really, you know, consulted and discussed with the DA various interventions that the Department of Agriculture is now going to be, you know, preparing for – actually, many of them are already ongoing – to, you know, in response to whatever the effect of these global events are. And I think, you know, we are prepared,” sabi ni Sombilla.
Idinagdag ni Sombilla na inaasahan magsisimula na ang anihan sa huling bahagi ng Setyembre o Oktubre.
“We have something like 39 days of stocks and then will continue, you know, the DA has already prepositioned ways by which we could really increase production. The biggest rice production will still come sometime … kung hindi end of September, sometime in October. So we will be beefing-up our supply and, of course, the usual na supply that we will be also getting from imports,” aniya.
