Former Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo Talks About Food Security At The Golkar Institute

Philippine President 2001-2010 Gloria Macapagal Arroyo gave a presidential lecture on food security at the Golkar DPP Office, West Jakarta, (photo: dock. intermediate)

JAKARTA - Philippine President 2001-2010 Gloria Macapagal Arroyo Saturday 16 September visited the Golkar Institute to give presidential lectures or presidential lectures entitled "Leadership and Resilience in the ASEAN Region" whose main focus is on food security. "At today's lecture President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo conveyed what had happened in 2008, namely the rice crisis," said Golkar Party Chairman, Airlangga Hartarto, at the Golkar Party DPP Office, West Jakarta, Saturday. Airlangga said it was very relevant to the current situation. Because India as one of the world's main rice producers is now imposing rice export restrictions in order to meet domestic needs.."What was conveyed earlier in a lecture by Mrs. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo became the concern of Indonesia today and became the attention of Bulog and attention of the president. The president has repeatedly went to the market to check rice prices," he said. Not only that, according to Airlangga, the government also provided rice social assistance for the next three months to rice aid recipients for 22 million people accompanied by market operations. In his lecture, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo spoke about food security as well as rice supply problems and prices that the Philippines had faced. "The Philippines itself had experienced El Nino's impact in 2007-2008. At that time, rice prices tripled in several months," Gloria said in her lecture at the Golkar DPP Office, West Jakarta, Saturday. He said El Nino's impact also went hand in hand with the export restrictions on rice by Vietnam and India. In fact, the two countries were then the countries that the Philippines relied on in efforts to meet rice reserve stocks. "At that time, the Philippines made several efforts to maintain food stocks in the country. One of them, exploiting science and technology. The Philippines seeks to increase supply chains, including rice production and risk management," said Arroyo.

According to Arroyo, market movements also lead to speculative trade especially to the basic commodities that must be bought by consumers, no matter how much. "Our rice dozens are driven by hybrid varieties developed with my government funds. However as usual, the global price spikes lead to speculative hoarding," he said. At that time, said Arroyo, the Philippines made several efforts to maintain rice prices in their country. One of them, carried out an investigation of hoarding and profit-taking of rice sales. He said the problem of food security and rice prices, important to be considered by the government in the Asian Region. Especially for Indonesia, food resilience is an important issue in the midst of preparations for the 2024 Election. The candidates for leaders and their staff will later be required to be sensitive to national food security threats," said Arroyo.