BY JOCELYN MONTEMAYOR

THE Arroyo government is properly addressing the situation of rising food prices and low food supply in the world market, limiting chances of food riots, an official of the United Nation's International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) said yesterday.

The food problems have sparked riots in at least 33 countries.

Kevin Cleaver, IFAD assistant president for program management department, said while the Philippines is in a short-term but "difficult" situation due to the rice situation, it is "not the worst off by any stretch of the imagination."

"You produce (rice) everyday; the government is talking about it. Imagine a government that's not concerned at all. You'd be in real trouble. She (Arroyo) is appropriately concerned, very concerned on a daily basis. I can tell you, my conversation suggested somebody who's concerned, knows what they're doing and is doing all the measures that she can," he said after his courtesy call on Arroyo in Malacañang.

He said shortage of food and hunger problems, which have triggered riots in some countries like Egypt, Uzbekistan and Haiti, are still far from happening in the Philippines.

He said the Philippine government is doing all it can to ensure the food supply although it would be unable to prevent rising prices.

"I'm very confident in the medium and long-term, this problem can be handled pretty easily by the Philippines. In the short term, every country in the world is struggling with this. (But) I understand the Philippines has created a commission to look at the issue of rice pricing, rice policy. And that commission will study the issue. In the long-term the solution is production, invest in agriculture and produce more," he said.

Cleaver said the "difficult" problem stemmed from the failure of some governments to prepare for a rice shortage despite ample warnings from agencies like that from IFAD which was issued two years ago. He said the food shortage problem stemmed from increasing population and increasing income particularly in countries like China and India.

"What's happened is the world has been taken by surprise. It's not just the Philippines. Most of the world has been complacent. The food appears in the supermarkets, people were eating it. So nobody really paid much attention to agriculture and all over the world you see degraded infrastructure, farmers who have been neglected, the poorest people in most countries are farmers," he said.

He said the best solution is to just "produce more as quickly as possible."

"In the meantime, you have a short-term problem, and it's difficult to cure a short-term problem with production that comes a year from now. governments are not magic fairies (that) they can just swing a wand and make the rice appear. That takes investment, and effort and production," he said.

Cleaver said IFAD is financing a $66 million agriculture and rural development program covering the Cordillera Administrative Region, which includes microfinance and rehabilitation of agricultural infrastructure like irrigation systems, farm to market roads and market facilities.

He said IFAD is likely to put in another $60 million to cover similar projects in the next two years.

Agriculture Undersecretary Berna Romulo-Puyat said the $66 million would cover the Cordillera Highland Agricultural Resource Management Project 2 (CHARM2) in the provinces of Abra, Mt. Province, Benguet, Ifugao, Apayao and Kalinga.

Arroyo, after the meeting with Cleaver, proceeded to the NBI headquarters in Manila and ordered its officials to focus on rice hoarding and profiteers instead of smuggling.

She told the officials led by director Nestor Mantaring that the NBI would be "wasting" a lot of efforts and money if it goes after rice smugglers when the there is "liberalized importation" in the country.

"So we're barking up the wrong tree... The whole point is the hoarding. If the rice from abroad is more expensive (than) the rice from here, it really is not rational to smuggle at this time," she said.