Solon warns of looming nutrition crisis

Albay Rep. Joey Salceda cited results of the April 19 to 27 survey showing that 12.2 percent of the respondents said their families experienced being hungry in the past three months. (Pexels photo)

MANILA – A lawmaker on Thursday warned the country of a looming nutrition crisis as a recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed that some 100,000 new families experienced involuntary hunger during the first quarter of 2022 amid surging commodity prices.

Albay Rep. Joey Salceda cited results of the April 19 to 27 survey showing that 12.2 percent of the respondents said their families experienced being hungry in the past three months.

“I fear that if we don’t find a way to get cheap, accessible sources of nutrition among the poor and among children, we will see a nutrition crisis that could affect long-term growth prospects,” Salceda said in a statement.

He noted that a Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) study found that an augmentation by 500 kilocalories (kcal) per day can cause as much as a 2.0 percentage point increase in real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita.

He noted that the mean daily energy intake of working adults was 1768 kcal/day or 74 percent of the Estimated Energy Requirements (EER) for this age group, according to another study by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI).

Based on these studies, he said the working-age Filipinos have around 621 calories in deficiency, which would result in at least PHP851,000 per person in lost productivity over one’s working lifetime.

“That’s worth a house! Working Filipinos currently lose a house’s worth of productivity because of poor access to nutrition. And that’s about to get worse during this period of high food prices. As caloric intake gets worse, and the quality of calories deteriorates, our long-term productivity will also suffer,” Salceda said.

The FAO and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) also warned of looming food crises, driven by “conflict, climate shocks, the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic, and massive public debt burdens” and further exacerbated by the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

He stressed the need to ensure access to cheap food by supporting the country’s main food system, but also encouraging small-scale and local food production, through initiatives such as community and backyard farming.

“In the short-run, we won’t be able to avoid imports until we are able to produce cheaply. But we will also need to supplement our domestic production of the usual staple crops with nutritional buffers such as camote, cassava, small-scale poultry and eggs, and easy-to-produce vegetables,” Salceda said.

He said the government should also pursue programs to boost sectors that are high in nutritional value relative to the cost, such as eggs, legumes, and root crops.

“That’s why I said the next Agri chief pick will be essential. I think given our current context, he or she will be the most important part of the country’s economic team,” he said.