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One Friday morning a couple weeks ago, I needed to dash to the grocery store for just a couple items. I left the kids home doing school work and assured them I would be back within the hour. The grocery store is probably no more than a mile from our house and, depending on traffic, the drive normally takes 5-10 minutes. This Friday, traffic was terrible. I sat and sat moving inches every few minutes. After about 30 minutes I neared the stop light in front of the grocery store. I began to see groups of people walking with heavy white grocery bags. Finally it dawned on me, somewhere ahead the NFA truck was selling government rice. Thankfully I turned before I got any closer to the distribution point.
The world shortage of rice continues to effect the Philippines. The National Food Authority (NFA) is trying to help provide rice to the poor by selling "nfa rice" in depressed areas. People will line up for hours in the hot sun to buy rice from NFA trucks. The rice is selling for 18.25 pesos per kilo as opposed to 25-30 pesos in the market. Each family is allowed to buy 3 kilos per day. Just this week, Emily and I passed another distribution truck. Em took these pictures as we passed by. .JPG)
Read one woman's story here:http://www.bulatlat.com/2008/04/queues-nfa-rice-keep-getting-longer
2 comments:
I feel so upset that the Philippines is short supply of rice. We use to export rice but now we importing rice from other Southeast Asian countries especially from Thailand and Vietnam. I hope my people are not again starving.
Perhaps the poverty will be over soon and the endless smiles of Filipinos are the smile of happiness not to smile just to forget about everyday problems.
take care
The Rice Update is a weekly summary of what's happening and what to look for in ... In addition to nutsedge, I have seen the 0.75 oz/A rate of Permit Plus control ... Do not use Regiment past the green ring stage and follow label .... Flooded rice is now responding and turning a nice dark green color with lots ...
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